A little something extra for the holidays.

Christmas village for the kids!

Maybe it's because I'm feeling generous because it's the Christmas season, or maybe it's because I'm feeling lonely without my wonderful roommate and desperately need to kill time before my 10:30PM train to Paris (and Brussels!), but here's another blog post coming only two days after the last!

Yesterday I went to St. Andrew's for morning service and then after a little Christmas shopping returned at 4pm for their Christmas carols service. I haven't talked much about its appearance, but with crucifixes everywhere and the grid iron separation between the congregation and the altar the church has more of a Catholic than Protestant feel. Regardless, it's a beautiful little church and decarations of holly and ivy really set it off yesterday evening. The lights were turned off and they passed out candles to everyone. (Because of Pau's gray, disgusting weather it didn't matter that we were having a candlelight service at four in the afternoon.) The tiny church was absolutely packed, with English speakers as well as French attendees, which was cool for me. In between traditional religious carols different speakers read Bible passages (in French and in English!). Even though St. Andrew's leads their regular services in English, it was neat for me to see how they made the effort to make French speakers feel welcome as well. One of my favorite songs that we sang during the service was the French carol "Dans une étable obscure," (Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming).

Christmas cookies in our tiny toaster oven!

After the service members of the parish followed a British Christmas tradition and served everyone mulled wine and mince pies. Oh my goodness. Mince pies are absolutely delicious! I think next year when I'm back in the States I'm going to try my hand at making them for the holidays. Furthermore, I enjoy a glass of eggnog (preferably soynog) every holiday season, but really, this mulled wine can't be beat! This is another tradition I wouldn't mind bringing back with me to the States. I enjoyed my mulled wine and mince pie with a kind, middle-aged French woman named Claude. It was great chatting with her in "franglais" (she's also fluent in English!) about all kinds of topics. I enjoyed hearing about her son who married a Sénégalaise and hearing about the volunteer opportunities she is pursuing now that she is retired. I'm so glad that I ended up speaking with her, because she gave me the name and address of a social community center where I should be able to find an organization to volunteer with. The best connections I've made in Pau have been through meeting kind, random people like Claude (and first Fouzia) and I'm so grateful for them.

St. Nicholas Day surprise!

To close out this random post I'll leave you with a few pictures. I've forgotten to keep you all updated on pastry excursions with my friends, but just to sum it up, it's been going very well. The last pâtisserie we went to was Saint-André for a millefeuille, a tarte with grapefruit and pear and a vanilla macaroon with caramel and mango. Mmm this is the life.

Ohhh yes.

And in case you didn't believe me a few posts back, I really did cook a raw turkey, and here is the photo to prove it.

Yep, stuck my hand right up in there. No fear! (Okay, maybe just a little.)

                                 

 Joyeux Noël à tous et à toutes!

The inside of the goodie bag my roomie left me for St. Nicholas Day!

Christmastime in Pau

Decorated street downtown

First off, it's so hard for me to believe that December is already here. I've been in France for about three months and only have four more left. Here away from my family and friends it's even harder for me to believe that Christmastime is here. I miss everyone so much this time of year, but I feel so blessed to be able to have the opportunity to experience Christmas in Europe.

Pau has definitely changed for Christmas, but some of the changes that I've noticed are necessarily Christmas-y. For example, now when I walk around downtown I hear music from the radio blasting from speakers on the streets. Sometimes it's Christmas music (mostly English), sometimes it just random, regular music like a Death Cab for Cutie song here, a Michael Bublé song there, etc. Also, I'm used to a not very cold Christmas and no snow, but the weather here has been crazy. Super windy days and torrential rain? Not my kind of winter time. Give me a Florida winter any day, or even a cold snowy winter. This rainy, kind of cold winter is pretty gloomy. Other than that, Place Clémenceau and a plaza by the Boulevard des Pyrenées have a few food carts with cotton candy, crepes and of course carnival games. Because 'tis the season to play Whack-A-Mole and bumper cars, right?

Bumper cars and beignets

Lights!

Another thing I want to mention isn't limited to Pau I imagine, but deals with how people greet each other during this season. In the U.S. you see "Happy Holidays" and "Season's Greetings" cards among signs in stores and greeting cards, but for those who want "Merry Christmas" cards, you can just as easily if not more easily find those as well. Here in France it is nearly impossible to find a good selection of cards that say "Joyeux Noël." More often I've been finding cards that say "Bonne Année," (Happy New Year!), "Joyeuses Fêtes" and "Bonnes Fêtes" (like Season's Greetings/Happy Holidays). In a country which has no shortage of federal holidays with a religious leaning (like Ascension and Pentecost), as much as it declares itself as secular and embraces "laïcité," I must admit that I wasn't expecting to have so much trouble finding good "Merry Christmas" cards here.

Did I mention you can also buy roasted chestnuts?

Other than some of those less Christmas-y aspects, I've been enjoying seeing downtown Pau lit up at night with lights everywhere. On every street there is a different design of lights, so it's fun to walk around and see the variety. Christmas markets are very popular here in Europe, and usually Pau has one. However, this year (I'm guessing because of budget cuts), there is no marché de Noël, but there are  little cute, cozy cabins set up in different plazas around downtown where you can buy vin chaud (mulled wine), hot chocolate and other Christmas goodies, as well as a few tents set up to buy gifts from local artisans like scarves and jewelry.

The first one with caramel that started it all

So, I feel like there is always a section of my blog devoted to food, and now that it's the holiday time, this section is absolutely crucial. Food is an essential part of Christmastime here, and boy have I been feeling it! Since the beginning of December I have eaten SO much chocolate, cookies, cake, etc. From chocolate left out in teacher's lounge, to German cookies that my roommate made, to rum cake that my wonderful, loving mother sent me, I feel like I can't escape. Now, this isn't a terrible problem to have, but surrounded by all of this, you have to learn how to limit yourself. One of the best things about Christmas here in Pau for me has been this wonderful hot chocolate to go that a specialty chocolatier makes here. It's only 2.50 euros and with this cup of hot chocolate you get a hefty piece of one of their chocolates of your choosing (like cinnamon, caramel, piment d'espelette (a type of pepper), almond, hazelnut, etc.) to dip in the hot chocolate as you drink. Needless to say, it was the most incredible to-go hot chocolate I have ever tasted. Because of that my friend Sarah and I just had to go the day immediately after trying it for the first time, to introduce our friend Andria to the marvel.

 

Me enjoying hot chocolate with a nice slice of white chocolate with cranberries and almonds.

When I did a Thanksgiving lesson with some of my students, they compared Americans' Thanksgiving meal to the meal that the French eat on Christmas day. At the schools here, each year the cafeteria plans a Christmas meal for the students, staff and faculty. After enjoying a Christmas meal at the school I can say that a French Christmas meal definitely rivals our Thanksgiving meal in terms of quantity. I went at the encouragement of a colleague and was so happy that I did. Looking back I cannot believe that I ate so much food. It was a full meal and what I chose was: foie gras and jambon de Bayonne (Serrano ham. Both are specialties of the region!) as an appetizer, magret de canard (filet of duck, another specialty!) with potatoes and a mushroom flan, cheese and a plate of a little chocolate mousse and raspberry pastry for dessert. Delicious. All of it. Sorry there are no pictures of this one! I didn't want to stick out too much as the dorky American assistant. It was great to get to taste some of the specialties in the region and enjoy a good meal with some of the other teachers at the high school. Usually I don't eat in the cantine (cafeteria) because I have a few hours break at lunch time and live very close, so I usually go home. Because of this, I was also surprised to see bottles of wine on all of the tables in the teacher's section of the cafeteria. Score. Only in France can teachers have a few glasses of wine with lunch in the middle of a school day. Love it.

Even with no snow, kids can still go sledding!

It's the first day of Christmas vacation and I'll be leaving Monday night to travel to Brussels and Bruges with my friend Ali, go with her to Paris to meet her brother and sister-in-law and another friend Andria and then head back to Pau and possibly go to Toulouse for New Year. I'm excited to have a bit more of Christmas here in Pau going to St. Andrew's Anglican Church's Christmas Carols service tomorrow afternoon and having mulled wine and mince pies. After that I'll be going to experience Christmas in other cities and I can't wait. When next we meet it will be after Christmas and maybe after the New Year, so to everyone reading, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year wherever you're celebrating and however you're celebrating!

The Pyrenees, Feuerzangenbowle and Thanksgiving à la française

Me in the Pyrenees, woot!

I love my life here. Really, I do. Every week has been eventful and full of new experiences and meeting new people. I love going to Super U to find something and asking friendly-looking older women for advice (as crazy as that may make me seem) or ending up having an interesting conversation with a Frenchman of Maghrebi descent, spurred by asking about a certain type of off-brand Nutella. I love discovering new pastries with my friends. I love comparing baguettes with my roommate as we "faire le tour" of the bakeries here in Pau. I love zooming down Rue Serviez on my bike on a beautiful Sunday morning when the road is clear and the city is quiet. I love the feeling when I have an absolutely perfect class with great students and a great lesson, when they listen to me and to each other, are interested and end the class understanding and using what I've taught. Anyway, the point is that even though the last week and a half has been quite eventful, I feel like every week here in Pau has its gems-- its special moments. I've really been blessed being placed in this particular corner of the Hexagon and while I'm here I'm trying to soak up all of the beauty and culture that I can.

More Pyrenees

Going to the Pyrénées with two of my teachers, one of their families and some friends was an opportunity to experience some of the beauty. My friends and I took the train to Oloron Sainte-Marie on a Saturday morning where my teacher and her husband and son picked us up. From there we headed to the Vallée d'Ossau to go hiking. Honestly, on the way to our destination I sat in the car thinking that hiking would be absolutely impossible as we swiftly moved around the winding roads up the mountains. "Ça tourne, oui?," asked my teacher Hélène. Yes, oh yes it turns. It turned my stomach to the point where when the car stopped and we got out and got a whiff of the fresh mountain air I felt I had never experienced anything better. We didn't do intense hiking on this run. We hiked for maybe an hour or a bit more, stopped for lunch and then turned back. In the beginning, some of our cellphones started going off because technically we were entering Spain while on our hike, as we were right along the border. How cool is that?

And more of the Pyrenees!

On our way back to Oloron, we stopped in a small town for hot chocolate and then once we were back in Oloron we went to Lindt. Yes, Lindt has a factory in Oloron, only a 30-minute train ride from Pau, which is very dangerous for my wallet and waistline. The factory is great because there is a little museum and it is a LOT cheaper than buying Lindt in the supermarkets here. Even so, I was shocked to see people walk out of there spending two or three hundred euros on several boxes of chocolate.

Next up on this blog update involves German culture. I'm lucky enough to have a really cool, sweet, fun, laid-back roommate who has also been teaching me a bit of German. Last week we celebrated her birthday at our apartment. She invited over some friends, made some appetizers, I made an ice cream cake (If you're reading this, thanks for showing me that recipe Lisa. Everyone loved it!) and we had the coolest thing I've ever seen-- feuerzangenbowle. I suggest you do a Google search of this because I didn't take pictures and you have to see it to believe it. Even so, I'll try to describe. Feuerzangenbowle is mulled wine, but made in a way I've never seen. You heat up the wine with spices and oranges first, and then there's this contraption that you put above the bowl and on top of it you put a cone of sugar. You light the sugar on fire as you pour rum over the cone of sugar, so the cone is lit on fire and as it melts it looks like the mulled wine is on fire as the lit up drops of rum-infused sugar fall into the bowl. So in short, it was an incredible sight and delicious as well.

Madame la Dinde

Sarah and I with our masterpiece.

So while you all were enjoying your turkey-filled Thanksgiving last Thursday, I was at home eating pasta. However, it was okay, because Saturday I had Thanksgiving over here with friends and it was AMAZING. Seriously, this one is going down in the memory books. It was such a cool experience sharing an American tradition with French friends, British friends and German friends who all left that night quite appreciative of our holiday. Our Thanksgiving started on Saturday, two days after yours, when some of my other American friends and I who took the lead on organizing Thanksgiving, met up to start cooking. After we made chocolate bread pudding, green bean casserole (with homemade fried onions!) and sweet potato casserole (my dish!), my friend Sarah and I left to prepare the turkey at her teacher's house where we had our Thanksgiving celebration. Neither of us had ever made a turkey before and it actually turned out to be quite scrumptious, as terrified as we were at the beginning of our turkey in its bloody bag. The teachers at our Thanksgiving feast even complemented us (and you know when actual adults complement your cooking that it's actually good). We kept the turkey seasoning simple with just salt, pepper, butter and herbes de provence (so a turkey à la française), but it was perfectly cooked and really good. When all was said and done, we had about twenty people at our Thanksgiving, with almost as many bottles of wine as people, turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots, corn, sweet potato casserole, semmelkloese (a German dish! Mmm.), bread, biscuits, pumpkin pie, apple pie, chocolate bread pudding and chocolate cake. It was such a great night of food and good time spent with friends.

No cranberry sauce, but mmm it was good!

In other news, I found an Anglican church over here that I've been to twice now. It's a nice, cozy little church with friendly parishioners. It's when I go to service there that I feel the most nostalgic and miss home the most. Funny, huh? I'm excited to go to their Christmas carol service before heading to Belgium and Paris for vacation, though I know that it's probably going to be a bit hard being away from family. Speaking of Christmas, only two weeks of work left before vacation! I can't wait to experience Christmastime here in Europe and look forward to sharing the season with new friends over here. Until next time! A+

So this is la vie paloise!

Plaza of the Americas throwback.

Sorry it's been a few weeks since my last post! Not much has been going on over here. After returning to work I've finally felt like I've been settling into my new life over here. I'm starting to learn at least a few of the students' names and at least have an idea of who their teacher is when I see them in the hallway. I don't realize how many I actually have until I see them in town or on the street next to the school and they tell me "Hello!" or "Bonjour!" and from time to time leave me wondering who they are.

High school in France is very different from high school in the U.S., and having the opportunity to be a language assistant here has made me much more of aware of these differences. Students do more presentations and speak a lot more in general in American classes whereas over here it seems to be the teachers who do most of the talking. This makes for some really quiet classes when the students are left with me. I've noticed that most of the girls are particularly quiet or self-conscious. While I'm here I want to try to get some of my girls talking just as much as the guys.
 

Part of a whiteboard after one of my lessons, haha.

While I have some classes filled of students with blank stares who are absolutely silent, as much as I ask if they understand and if they can just give me a sign that they're alive, there are other classes I have where the students are literally bouncing off the walls. It can be a lot to handle when there are 10-15 high schoolers jabbering and acting like teenagers, but the classes where students are lively have been my favorite. This last week it was fun seeing the expressions of shock on my students' faces when I told them about Thanksgiving and showed them pictures of what Americans eat for the holiday. Across the board most students found pumpkin pie, sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole to be the strangest dishes.

A few weeks ago when I finally experienced some of the torrential, rainy weather that the Palois have been talking about, my friends and I used the time to go to the art museum here in Pau. Right now they have an exhibit called 'The Museum Experience" with a bunch of old posters from rock concerts during the 1960s and 1970s. In general we always think of the 60s and 70s as a radical, dramatic time and it was cool to see how it was manifested in posters advertising concerts from these classic artists. It was great to have music from artists/groups like Jefferson Airplane, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Bob Dylan playing while going through the exhibit.

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy poster. Mmm PB...

Bob Dylan poster

Outside of work, for the most part I've just been hanging out with some of the other assistants and doing what we do best-- eating. We had tex-mex earlier this week with some of our new French friends and I tried my hand again with my dried black beans. They turned out better, but I think I'm going to swear off black beans until I can find a can of them. I've made a few more French dishes in the last few weeks. I made courgettes à la marseillaise (think ratatouille, but with rice and no eggplant), which was quite delicious. I think the French may eat this as more of a side dish, but when you're young and on a budget, with a piece of baguette and some cheese it makes a delicious meal. 

Courgettes à la marseillaise

Croque-monsieur

The owners of my apartment finally hooked us up with a toaster oven and to christen it, I made one of my favorite French foods-- croque monsieur. It's really simple and not super fancy, but with real gruyère, ham and crème fraîche it doesn't get much better. I like to call it France's sophisticated answer to grilled cheese.
 

Can we even find these in the U.S.?

To continue on the topic of food, last Saturday my friends and I went to the market at Les Halles for the first time, and in perfect weather it was absolutely lovely. There was a used book stand where I was able to pick up a copy of L'Etranger and a book of some of Baudelaire's poems for only one euro. Other than book shopping it was fun to go around to the different stands and look at cooking materials, scarves, fruits, vegetables, meat and bread. At one stand we tried gâteau basque, a cake with cream from the region, which was delicious. I needed honey, and so instead of buying some generic store honey at the supermarket I decided to get some at the market. After a conversation about different types of honey with a friendly producer and several honey samples later, I decided on a type to purchase. When it comes to getting produce, I've learned that going to the market is really the best way to go. The fruits and vegetables all look so much better than what you find in the supermarkets (and in some cases depending on the stand you go to, are cheaper as well!). Certain fruits and veggies in particular such as bananas, are much better at the market.

Like I said, really just life has been going on-- la vie paloise. Now that I'm settled, I'm trying to look for clubs/organizations I can join, volunteering opportunities, etc. Next week is going to be a busy one, with my roommate's birthday on Wednesday, hopefully a concert at the Centrifugeuse at the university on Tuesday and a Thanksgiving celebration with the other assistants on Saturday, so I'll definitely have a lot to report next time. Tomorrow I'm going hiking in the Pyrenees with two teachers, the husband of one of the teachers and four of my friends. Expect great pictures in the next post. It should be a blast! For now I leave you with a picture of one of the saddest aspects of living in France.

An itty-bitty seven euro jar of Skippy.

Vacation already?

That's right. After only three weeks of work we were treated with a week and a half of vacation. Because we hadn't yet received our first paycheck at the beginning of vacation and because we didn't feel much like traveling all over the place just yet, some of my friends and I just decided to stay in Pau and take day trips to a few different cities close-by.

First on our daytrip schedule was Toulouse, "la ville rose." The city is called "la ville rose" because of the red brick used throughout the city. We arrived in Toulouse just around noon and just in time to take advantage of an open-air market in the Place du Capitole. There was a used book sale going on and I was able to pick up the sequel to a book I had just finished this summer. Other than that it was fun to go around and look at the fresh produce and local products for sale. Even if I don't need anything I always enjoy visiting open-air markets and looking around.

"Le Florida" café in the Place du Capitole.

While in Toulouse we just wandered around, exploring different streets and shops. We took a walking tour given in French which was pretty interesting. We visited some of the main sites and caught some interesting facts here and there amidst the tour guide's rambling speech and witty comments.

Pont Neuf

I've heard that what really makes Toulouse a great city is the music scene. I'm hoping to go back to visit and spend a weekend, because as a city with a lot of college students, I think it would be a fun city to spend more time in.

After Toulouse we decided to try to go the mountains for hiking and just admiring the general splendor. Pau is really close to the Pyrenees, so to get the mountains it's only about a 45-minute drive. One of my friends suggested going to this little village which has some kind of falcon exhibit set up where you can learn about these birds which are found a lot in the area and see them in their habitat... or something like that. When we arrived the museum/exhibit was closed and didn't reopen until later in the afternoon, so we just wandered around this cute, seemingly deserted little village, hiked up a hill for a bit, ate lunch and napped in the sun-- a perfect time if you ask me.

After getting up from our nap we decided that the falcon exhibit/museum didn't look too impressive for the price (especially because we had been seeing them all afternoon waiting for the exhibit to reopen). So, we packed up and headed back to Pau. On our way back we stopped off at a winery in Gan close to Pau to pick up some bourret. Bourret is a refreshing drink (to my knowledge), available only around this time every year. It's kind of like a grape cider, so not grape juice, but definitely not wine either. After getting some of that and a few delicious baguettes, we stopped off at a little fromagerie to get some cheese. Once back in Pau, we had a little picnic in the garden here at my apartment with all of our delicious finds.

Barrels of grapes at the winery in Gan

Our last "big" trip during vacation was to Bordeaux. Before going many people had told me how beautiful the city was, but I really had to see it to believe it. The city is absolutely gorgeous and like Toulouse, I really hope I can get back there soon when I can spend a bit more time. While in the city I went to a wine museum with some friends, which was pretty interesting because it offered a good deal of information about how the wine trade started in the Bordeaux area and talked about how certain people had a hand in the trade and development of wine in the area (like Thomas Jefferson!). Also, we got to taste two wines at the end, which is always nice.

Wine Museum

After the wine museum my friends and I had lunch down by the Quais. Before going to the Quais we walked around a little bit through the fair that was in Bordeaux at the time. I'm not a huge fan of fairs in the States and just like everything else here, fairs are much more expensive in France than ours fairs in the U.S. On another note, walking past the vendors selling kebabs, crepes, churros and other greasy, sweet, artery-clogging food, I found myself much more disgusted by the food offered at fairs here than the food sold at fairs in the U.S. In the country of fine cuisine, how is that possible?

Jardin Public

Anyway, after lunch we walked by the water and then up to the Jardin Public. I love going to parks and gardens over here. Especially when it's beautiful outside, it's a great way to pass the time.

Outside of these trips, my vacation was also spent just hanging out here in Pau, getting to enjoy some of the city and enjoying time with friends. On Saturday some friends and I went to an event at Henri IV's castle that we randomly heard about where people dressed up in medieval age attire were giving out free bourret (woot!). From what I could gather it seemed like a homage to the medieval days of Pau maybe. After that we went to different shops in search of a reasonably priced, effective raincoat for me and then later ended up at a café with some delicious pastries. I had a pastry called a succès-russe which actually has a pretty interesting history if you look it up. After having such great pastries my friend and I decided that every other Saturday we'll be trying different pastries at different cafés/pâtisseries. Good thing I have to walk or ride my bike everywhere...

Wrapped up pastries to go!

                                                                               
Sunday was great because some of the assistants decided to meet at my place for crepes. I didn't realize that we had daylight savings time over here this past Sunday and it made for a very interesting morning. Nonetheless it was fun trying to get into the groove making crepes with friends. Every time I make crepes in a new place, I find it takes a little while to get it straight. You think it would be easier just being in France but no, at first it really wasn't, haha. Another friend came, a French roommate of one of the assistants, and brought batter to make real French crepes, haha. He introduced a tradition to us where when you flip a crepe in a pan, you should hold a 2 euro piece (used to be a franc back in the day) in your left hand, the skillet in your right hand and make a wish right before flipping the crepe in the air. I was so excited that it actually worked when I did it and I flipped my crepe perfectly!

Mmm unwrapped. Mine is on the right.

As if I haven't talked enough about food I'll do a quick recap of my French Halloween before signing off. I was never much into Halloween back in the U.S., so it didn't tear me up that it's not too big of a deal here in France. To celebrate at least a little, some of my friends and I got together to make chili and cornbread. I was responsible for finding the cornmeal for the cornbread and it was a pretty fun experience. After going to three different grocery stores and asking different clerks, finally one woman told me that I would probably be able to find it at this exotic food store Marhaba here in Pau that sells "strange and unusual" products. This is the same store where I found black beans (yessss!!), so I was happy to go back and find some cornmeal. I now know that chances are I can depend on this store for "strange and unusual" products I loved back home. Anyway, the cornbread ended up great. The chili was good, though I missed the chili powder (have to go back to Marhaba and check for that!) and after all of the garlic I chopped up and ate in that chili, I think I'm going to smell like garlic for days.

Bikes, Cabanes, Fire, Brunch-- just a typical weekend in Pau.

A lot has happened in the last few days. Even just the weekend was quite an eventful one. It started out Friday night with a relaxing dinner and drinks with some of the other assistants at "Le Garage," a pub and restaurant here in Pau. It's a really great place, with drinks that aren't super expensive and good food (I've never had burgers so good in France!)

During the week I heard about the rugby match between France and Wales on Saturday morning for the World Cup. Because I'm living in France and will be interacting a lot with students who love rugby, I figured that I should try to watch some of the game. So, I woke up at 10 to watch a game that I absolutely do not understand. France won though, so that was good! Rugby is really popular here in Pau, so I'm hoping to actually get to go to a local match and have someone explain to me how it works.

Anyway, after rugby my roomie and I hiked over to the university to meet our friend who has a car (woot!) so we could voyage out to Decathlon (a sporting goods store) to search for bikes. Saturday was the beginning of the "Trocathlon" where people can come with old sporting goods like skis, snowboards, bikes, hiking boots, etc. and sell them to Decathlon who then sells them to others for much lower prices. It was a little chaotic, but even so, my friends and I managed to find three bikes and each one was less than 50 euros. Success! However, the biggest success was that we managed to fit the three of us and the three bikes in a little VW Golf. (Needless to say, how we managed to do it wasn't the safest, but hey, especially when you're young, you've gotta do what you've gotta do.) Instead of explaining how we managed to do it, I'll show you.

Can you spot me underneath all that? My bike is the blue one. :)

So we drove back to our friend's university dorm where my roomie and I took our bikes on an inaugural ride back to our apartment. You know you live abroad when the sensation you get after buying a bike is similar to what you feel when you buy a car. It feels amazing to actually be mobile.

Because I was mobile, after we got back I went out to an event that a local suggested to me called "Mortel." Now when this guy first told me about this event, I had no idea what it was going to be-- he said that there would be some theatre, some art and fire as well. Even after having gone, I still can't really explain what it was, haha. It was definitely a creative, artistic, more liberal event.

Anyway, I rode out to the quartier Berlioz close to the university to attend this mysterious (and free!) event. The main part of this event involved various "cabanes," little huts decorated by a variety of people from the community in various ways. There were cabanes made from fruit, one was a huge hat, one was completely pink, one was a suspended ball made from twigs and leaves, one was like a spinning merry-go-round, etc. One of my favorites was a geometrical dome cabane that you had to lay on your back and roll into which was covered with "stars" on the inside and had really cool music going.

The Rotating "Cabane"

Outside of the "cabanes," when I first arrived a "game" started which according to the announcer is a game from ancient times in Pau (highly unlikely, but what do I know), with teams of two where the point is to throw insults at each other. This was absolutely hilarious. There are some insults I heard that it's probably best I keep to myself, but some of my favorites were: "Sarkoziste!" "Jean Marie le Pen!" "Croûte sans fromage!" (Rind without the cheese!) Teams lost points if they hesitated or repeated insults and won points if they delivered absolutely stinging remarks.

That older gentleman in the red vest was absolutely ruthless!

There were also some theatrical facets of this event. If I was there from the beginning of the event I would have seen more, but one thing I found amusing was a group of "protestors" who marched around, picketing with blank signs. I can't think of anything better to characterize what goes on here in France where there's always a "manifestataion" blocking the streets or a "grève" keeping you from using the bus or train.

The last part of the event involved burning some of the "cabanes." This wasn't just dropping a match on the cabanes either. This meant some of the workers (or volunteers? or actors?) running around around with torches (much too close to the spectators I might add), setting these huts ablaze. After that there was a percussion show with fireworks. All in all it was a really cool event. At the very least it was free and there was a lot to see and entertain.

The inside of another cabane.

Sunday was one of the most perfect Sundays I've ever spent in France. Some of us assistants decided to get together and make brunch at one of our apartments. We had pancakes, eggs and fruit salad and had a great late morning/afternoon cooking, eating, lazing around and chatting. 

  

After brunch we went and met a French guy around our age who was really good friends with the assistants who lived in Pau last year. He seems like a really friendly person, so hopefully we'll keep this contact this year. It was good getting to meet him, hang out at a cafe and then have some ice cream and walk down the Boulevard des Pyrenées in perfect weather.

That was my weekend. The least pleasant part was Sunday night, spending hours trying to figure out what to do with students at the beginning of this week, but I managed to put something together that the students seemed to enjoy. The beginning of this week has been pretty eventful too, but because this entry has already been painfully long, I'll stop here for now. Two more days of work and then vacation!

Shopping, cooking and eating. It's simple right?

Not necessarily. The last time I was in France I stayed with a host family, so my host mom did all of the shopping and cooking. After living here for three weeks on my own I am even more grateful for all of the great meals she made and the time she took to "faire des courses."

In Gainesville, I enjoyed grocery shopping. I was familiar with my local supermarkets and could move easily up and down the aisles. Not so here. To go grocery shopping means "faire des courses." "Course" means a few things, but in general it means running, racing, etc. I don't think it's a coincidence that this word is used to describe grocery shopping because that's really what it is over here-- a race to see who can grab items off the shelves and make it to the cash register the fastest.

Grocery shopping has been the worst at this huge supermarket over here called Auchan. My friends from study abroad know how much I hate Carrefour (France's version of Walmart on steroids), but compared to Auchan, Carrefour is heaven. As good as my French is, it's definitely not perfect, so for me, at least now at the beginning, it takes a little while to get my bearings in a grocery store (especially one as massive as Auchan) and make sure I'm picking up food that I'll enjoy. Having a mom almost run me over with her grocery cart because I'm spending a little more time looking over the 20 varieties of cow's milk available does not make my shopping experience very "tranquille."

Adding to the stress, when you buy groceries over here, the customer has to bring bags and bag the groceries him/herself. I have no problem bringing bags (I hate all that plastic anyway), but when you've bought a good amount of groceries and the cashier is scanning the items at rapid fire speed, throwing them to you to quickly bag so that you can pay and the next customer can start playing catch, this does not help make grocery shopping a less stressful experience either. Also, at least at some supermarkets here, you have to weigh fruits and vegetables and print out a barcode before you go to the cash register. Be grateful in the U.S. when you can just go up with a bag of apples and have the cashier weigh it for you, because it's not fun when you've forgotten and have to run across the store just to weigh two apples.

So, when I go grocery shopping you may wonder what I buy and what I make for myself. Even though France is a Western country, there are still a lot of different products here that we don't have in the U.S., so in my first few weeks I've found myself in the middle of a chaotic supermarket staring at the aisles and having no idea what to buy to cook for myself. After two such trips, I've learned to plan out or at least have an idea of what I want to eat before I go so I don't waste time (or money) at the store. One habit I've gotten into is picking up one new cheese every week to eat with dinner. So far I've had a goat cheese, cow's cheese and an ewe's cheese. Making them last the week has been the most difficult part. Mmmmm delicious.

So, meat over here is super expensive and at least when it comes to eating at home, most of my meals are probably going to be more vegetarian. I have no problem with this, I love vegetarian cuisine (though it's harder here where black beans don't seem to exist, but that's another story.) Anyway, after a much more successful grocery trip at the calmer supermarket Super U, I picked up a whole bunch of veggies last Saturday and made a delicious ratatouille Monday night.

While I'm over here and the ingredients are more easily available, I'll be trying my hand at more French dishes. I had to cut the quantity for this recipe in half and still ended up with too much eggplant, so I cut up the rest with tomatoes for pasta last night. As I get more used to how running the races works here, I'm enjoying cooking and trying new things. And if I can cook well on these "plaques éléctriques" found in most of the apartments here, I will indeed consider myself a chef.

First Week of My Contract

From how much I've been updating this week you can tell that I finally got Internet at my apartment, right? Hah, it's funny that now that I have almost unlimited access to the Internet I haven't been posting as many updates. I'll contribute part of that though to the fact that I was in and out of my school this week, gathering paperwork to send off to various places, spending time with people and still trying to get a bike.

We'll start with work. This was the first official week of my contract, so I only really observed classes. Over the course of the week I attended a variety of classes, with younger and older students, students who take more hours of English, others who take fewer, etc. I'm teaching at a "lycée général et technologique," which is a high school where students are pursuing studies in science and technology. Because of this, some students who have more tech heavy schedules take less foreign language classes than other students. In all of the classes I went to, the teacher had the students try to get to know me by asking me questions. Some of my favorite/the most popular questions were:

1)Why did you come to Pau?
2)Do you speak French really well?
3) What do Americans think of French people?
4) How do you make pancakes?
5)What is the toughest thing to get used to here in France?
6)Were you disappointed when you came to France for the first time?


It's a bit confusing, but I'm going to try to summarize how my job will work. All of the English teachers have a maximum of 30 students in their classes. During select hours during a week I'll take half of a particular teacher's class and then the following week take the other half of the class. Some classes I'll see less of because during a certain hour I'll have a different teacher's class depending on the week. Confusing, right? So basically, I'll be seeing a lot of different students during the course of a week or even a few weeks. When it comes to planning activities for the classes I have a feeling it might be a little confusing at first, but hopefully it should work out okay. I'll be doing my first solo classes tomorrow, so I'm excited (but a little nervous) to start!

On Tuesday there was an all-day meeting for all of the teaching assistants (for English, German, Spanish and Russian) in my area. Before going I heard that the purpose of the meeting was for us to meet other assistants in our area, though I must admit that it was a bit difficult because of how the activities and everything were organized. Still, the meeting was pretty useful for ideas in the classroom and help with sorting out paperwork. Bureaucracy is a nightmare in France and so it was good to have some clear instructions on what we should get together and send off to validate our "carte de séjour" and enroll in the healthcare program.

I'm still continuing my quest for a bike. My roommate, another assistant and I went out to the boonies to search for bikes at what I would describe as a flea market influenced by solidarity and the idea of social responsibility. From what I understand people donate items to this organization/people come with old used items and sell them to the community for lower prices. The bikes we saw were all in pretty rough shape so we left empty-handed. We did however see a colorfully decorated combination clothes washer/bike. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of that one!

I've been seeing from Facebook that the weather has been getting cooler in Florida. Unfortunately it's the case here too, though it's been much colder than Florida temperatures. Seriously, one day it was sunny and warm and the next it was overcast and rainy. I don't know what happened! Hopefully we'll have a few sunny days this week. Locals tell me that it rains quite a bit here and that days are either beautiful or gray and wet. We'll see!

I can't end this post talking about something as dull as the weather, so other than what I mentioned it's been a good week spending time with some of the other assistants. Last night one of the English language assistants invited us to her house for a housewarming party. Since she has four French roommates it was a good opportunity to meet some French people closer to our age and mingle for a bit. It was a good time, though as a foreigner it's always hard to strike up conversation with and meet people who are willing and interested in talking with you, especially among the young adult crowd. Still I had some good conversation with a few people and I'm hoping to have a lot more opportunities like this in the future.

*Oh, one last thing. Warm goat cheese and honey on toasted bread is quite possible one of the most divine combinations I've tasted. That is all.

Highlights of My First Week

So after the last more serious post, I promised that I would be more positive this time. So here's some of what I loved about my first week in Pau:

1)Sitting by the fountains at Place Clemenceau. This a large square downtown surrounded by a bunch of stores (including H&M, score!). Sitting by the fountains last Thursday I met a really friendly woman and her adorable two-year-old son (who she let loose to play naked in the fountains, haha). While sitting with her she told about some places I should definitely check out in Pau and even suggested a place for me to get a cheap bike. Lots of people think I'm crazy for this, but striking up a conversation with people I randomly meet is one of the things I live for. It happens much more often over here than in the U.S. and I love when it does. When it happens it shows me that there are some of us who still do pay attention to the people around us (outside of those who we already know).

2)Getting rosé sangria. Yes, rosé sangria. I've had red sangria, and I've seen white sangria, but rosé? Being really close to Spain (I'll try to do a post about Pau and it's location and all that soon), when I went out for tapas with some of the English language assistants I thought we were going to get the real deal, but no. Even so, it was still really good, haha.

3)Going to the L'Atelier du Vélo and riding a bike down one of the busiest roads in Pau. Like I mentioned earlier, the woman I met by the fountains told me about a really nice guy close to her apartment who repairs old bikes and sells them for cheap. I visited him last Friday and when I went to his "headquarters," he asked if I knew how to ride a bike (I hope so if I'm going to buy one I thought, lol.), said it would be faster if we went by bike, borrowed one of his friend's bikes, let me use one of his and we rode over to his garage so I could look at some. It was definitely an experience riding out on this busy road with this tiny older man ahead of me on his bike, moving smoothly around buses and cars without fear, looking back to see if I was still there, haha. I didn't find one last week but I'll be back to visit him this Thursday or Friday and see his new additions.

4)Hanging out around the university. Last Friday I went to put up fliers in search of a roommate (I even made a plea to a grad school class in French!). I picked up a campus newsletter, and the concert schedule for this cool place on campus called the Centrifugeuse, so I'm really excited to check out what will be going on there during the year.

5)Seeing my Mom. Or, I should say a French look-alike, haha. I got on the bus last Friday and this woman walked on who looked just like my Mom. If she didn't start speaking French I would have given her a huge hug and then proceeded to look like an idiot, haha.

6)Getting a café, noisette, etc. So, because I still don't have Internet I've been haunting the mall downtown, becoming a regular at the two cafés I've been able to find that have free wi-fi. What I love about getting coffee over here (even though people from outside of France complain about the size) is that it always comes with a little cookie or chocolate. Especially when you're having a rough day, it really hits the spot.

7)Getting a roommate! It's funny that right after I mentioned my problems with that in my last post I ended up getting a call from the assistant who was originally supposed to room with me, saying that she was still interested. So far it's been good! She's German and seems really nice so far. Even though she speaks some English, we pretty much only speak French in the apartment, which I like. Hopefully things will continue to go well there.

Well this is my first official week as an English teaching assistant. Tomorrow there's an all-day meeting with all of the assistants in the department and the rest of the week (including today), I'll just be observing English classes and introducing myself to students. I'm sure that by the end of the week I'll have plenty to report.

The Real World

Right before coming to France two different sources reminded me (or rather told me for the first the time) that what the other assistants and I were doing (especially those who just graduated from college like me), was entering the real world and starting a first job-- just in a different country. I never thought about it in that way, but it is definitely true. Saying that, even though I've only been here a little over a week, there are a few things I have learned (or that have been reinforced) after entering the "real world” in France and here are a few of them:

1. Money makes the world go 'round.

*Of all people, I hate to be the one to say this, but it's really true. Life is made so much easier (especially starting a new life in foreign country) when you have money. It doesn't have to be a lot, but just enough to be sufficient and keep you from worrying too much. Sometimes if we don't have as much money as we would like, we end up trying to go for options that we think may be cheaper by waiting or jumping on an offer and often we end up spending more money because of it.

2. People very rarely have your best interest in mind.
   
   
   *As kind as people may seem, I would say that this holds true in general (except of course for people who you are very close to-- family, friends, etc.) For example, as welcoming as someone may appear when you're starting something new, whether it be a new job, renting a new apartment, starting a grad program at a university, starting a new hobby, etc., usually people are thinking of themselves first. Because of this, even if someone suggests something to you that seems to be a good option, really reflect and make sure it's right for you. What may seem great may just be a way to free themselves of responsibility in some way or make their own lives easier.
   
   
3. Communication is KEY. In matters of importance, know to what point you should be diplomatic without it being detrimental to yourself.

*I haven't really talked to anyone about this but my parents, but I've been having a bit of a problem with the apartment I'm in right now. It's great and the family I'm renting from is great, but it's very lonely at the moment. To save you a long story and prevent having all of my business on this site (if you want the full details email, facebook or Skype me) there was a miscommunication in terms of a roommate and at least for now I'm alone. I'm trying to find someone however I can (from language assistants who haven't arrived yet to students at the university here), but it's definitely a daunting task. I would have been spared a lot of trouble if I was forward and straight up with my wishes up front. Right now, I would say it is better to risk slightly offending someone than ending up in a situation where you're not the happiest.

Okay, enough of the pessimistic post. I promise the next one will be a pleasant one because there has been some great stuff going on this week as well. Pau is lovely but at the moment there is a good deal on my plate. For now send positive thoughts and prayers my way! I think I'm a great person. I don't smoke, I'm friendly, fun, neat but not super freak neat, don't smell, can cook pretty well, can hold a conversation and my French is pretty good if I say so myself. I think I would be a great catch as a roommate! If you guys know anyone else headed to (or already in) Pau for the year please talk me up. :-)

A True Indian Summer

Have any of you ever heard of the expression "Indian summer?" Maybe because I grew up in Florida where it is always sweltering, we never had a use for this term. Since I've been in Pau I've been hearing this phrase a lot by people describing how hot it's been outside. Right now I'm sitting outside in a tank top loving the heat and sunshine. It's been wonderful to experience some of France outside of a huge coat.

What might an Indian summer look like in Pau? Well here is a picture of part of the Boulevard des Pyrenées to give you an idea. This is a main road downtown that you can see the Pyrenees from.

Things have been looking up because I was able to meet some of the other English language assistants who are living in Pau. I'm really looking forward to Tuesday as well because there will be an all-day meeting where we'll meet the other language assistants for German, Spanish, etc.

The rest of this week I'm going to open a bank account, find a bike and try to start some of the paperwork so I can get health insurance and all of that fun stuff. This great weather should continue throughout the weekend so I'm hoping to spend a lot of time outside before the cold and rain come. Work begins next week and I can't wait to get started!

I'm here!

This post is coming a bit later than I would have liked because the apartment where I'm living does not have Internet just yet. My apologies! I'll try to recap as quickly and completely as possible. I promise the rest of my entries will be a lot more interesting to read.

I flew out of Orlando on September 21^st. I used Orlando Sanford International Airport which was a pleasant experience. It's a lot smaller and more manageable than MCO, but not as pretty (I could probably have gotten there at 6pm for my 7pm flight and been more than fine). I flew with Icelandair which was a cool experience. Besides getting a layover in Reykjavik, I got to hear lots of Icelandic from the announcements given which was pretty cool. The worst part of my flight experience was probably watching No Strings Attached, a romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. Natalie, usually your movies are so good! What happened?

I landed in Paris on September 22^nd around 12:30 (local time) with a backpack, a big rolling suitcase and a duffel bag, ready to brave the narrow turnstiles, escalators and winding hallways of Charles de Gaulle airport. Needless to say, going through a crowded airport by yourself with so many bags is not fun, so I didn't want to do the same on the RER and the metro and risk losing something (or getting lost myself with all those bags). I opted for a taxi from the airport and had an interesting discussion with a Moroccan cab driver about family, Arabic, cosmopolitanism, the U.S., and various other topics.

While in Paris I was lucky enough to stay with the parents of a friend I made when I studied in Grenoble last year. The apartment is in a great area in Montparnasse, not too far from Luxembourg Gardens. They live on the fifth floor of their apartment building and with the narrow, winding staircases in France I was really grateful that they had an elevator (even if it was so small that it could only fit my bags). I only spent one night there but had such a great time getting to know my friend's parents. It was the first time I had met them and my friend was not there, but they welcomed me with such warmth and hospitality. I didn't get to do much in Paris because I was really only there for the evening, but I did walk a bit around Montparnasse, go the train station and buy my carte 12-25 (a great card for youth traveling in France so you get discounts on the trains!) for the train the next day. The best part about Paris was enjoying the company of my friend's parents-- having dinner with them, having good conversation about a bunch of topics, listening to classical music, Stevie Wonder and Billie Holiday and seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up from a window at the top of their apartment. Even though I'm not super big on the Eiffel Tower as a figure of Paris, it was cool seeing it up close for the first time last year. It was much more impressive still to see it from a distance from my friend's parents' apartment window, knowing that it's what they can see every night and a real piece of life in the city, not just a tourist attraction.

I had to wake up early the next day to take a 7:45AM train to Pau. Even though the train station is probably about a 10 minute walk from my friend's parents place, walking with all of my stuff would still have been atrocious, so I was really grateful that my friend's dad made the walk with me, helping me with my luggage through the streets and even helping me get them on the train. It is five hours from Paris to Pau, which I thought would go by very slowly, but drifting in and out of sleep made it go by pretty quickly. I got to Pau around one in the afternoon and one of the English teachers I'll be working with met me at the train station. After that she and the main teacher I've been in contact with both showed me around the school, had me meet the principal and assistant principal, one of the other English teachers and some of the other staff at the school. Everyone seems to be friendly and helpful and I'm excited to get started.

For now that's pretty much it! I got a few groceries after I put my stuff into my apartment and on Saturday I wandered around downtown, stopped at the office du tourisme to get some maps (a must when going to a French city for the first time), got a SIM card and minutes for a phone and squeezed every second of life out of my netbook and iTouch using Internet at the mall. In general life is good, though I've definitely been doubting my sanity by deciding to do this program for the next seven months. The first month will probably be a bit of a challenge getting settled and starting my position at the school, but I think this will be good experience. I'm a bit lonely for the moment with no Internet at the apartment and no roommate yet, but once things start rolling I'm sure it will look up. In French at times like this they like to say "ça va aller," which means basically that things are going to be okay and I'm sure they will.