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.