Bienvenue le Printemps!

It's finally spring! The weather has been warming up, the sun is shining more often, and the cafes are setting out their tables in the sun. To celebrate the first days of spring, there was a carnival parade and festival in Nogent. All my students had been busily preparing over the past week by designing and decorating cardboard, spring-themed posters and such. Then, on Sunday afternoon, everyone (including teachers) dressed up in spring-time clothes, such as butterflies, ladybugs, gardeners, princesses, etc, and paraded around the town throwing confetti and being silly. Having almost 200 students is not so fun when they all decide to throw confetti in your face!! Luckily, I too was armed with a bag of confetti to get back at them. At the end of the parade, everyone went to Place St.Pol, the town square, and started a big bonfire to burn away the 'bad spirits'. It was great to see all my kids out about town as well as see the other teachers outside of school.

Una semana madrilena

Over break, I traveled down south to Madrid to visit Jessica, a good friend of mine who is teaching English there. It was a wonderful week of Spanish food- paella, patatas bravas, tapas, tortilla espangol, etc. Everything was amazing, and of course it was wonderful to see Jessica, as well as her roommates, Tory and Allison! On Saturday, Jessica and I played some ultimate frisbee (finally!) with the team she's joined in Spain. It was so much fun, even though after about 3 hours of ultimate I could hardly walk! It was really nice to throw a frisbee again and run around on a field.

We also celebrated Allison's birthday with a night out, full of dancing and fun! We also celebrated Valentine's Day by going to a tapas restaurant and sharing a meal there. One of the best things in Spain is that whenever you order a drink, they give you a plate of food to go with it- from olives, to paella to potatoes. On Sunday, Jessica and I got up in time to visit 2 of the most famous museums, the Prado and the Reina Sofia during their free hours and saw lots of Goyas and Picassos as well as other artists.

On Monday, Allison, Jessica and I went to a town outside of Madrid called Segovia that has the highest concentration of Romanesque churches in Spain and an aqueduct. It was a cute Spanish town, and really nice to visit. Overall, a very relaxing vacation and great to catch up with many UNC kids. :)

Un week-end americain

To start the vacances off with a bang, some other assistants and I took a weekend trip to Le Mans to watch a basketball match with David Noel playing! Yay for some Tar Heel love! Even though his team lost, it was still a great atmosphere, lots of loud, French cheering, and a reminder of how wonderful basketball is. Le Mans is a lovely city, with an old quarter that was super charming and full of delicious looking restaurants. The shopping was also fantastic, and all of us found some good deals at the sales.

We continued the sport weekend by going to Paris to watch the Superbowl at Le Players- a huge sports bar in Paris. One of the assistants is from Louisiana, so needless to say, we were all supporting the Saints. Yes, it started at 12:30am here, yes it was in English, no they did not show the commercials (lame!), yes they had "cheerleaders" to pump up the crowd, and no, we did not go to sleep until the next morning, catching the early train back home. The atmosphere really reminded me of being back home for any other big sporting event. The most painful part, however, was the ESPN America commercials for their next big event- UNC vs. Dook on Wednesday night. Emma and I cheered real loud for those commercials every time Ramses showed up! Go Saints, Go Heels, and happy vacationing!

Snow?! Again!?

Another weekend, and only one week until winter holidays! This past weekend, Emma (another assistant from Cary) and I visited Versailles to see Louis XIV playground and experience French monarchy at its most extravagant. It was crazy! Huge, excessive, and beautiful. The gardens were my favorite part, but as it was winter, the fountains were frozen (kinda cool) and the flowers weren't in bloom. But it was a sunny day, although a bit chilly. Luckily, the snow that was covering Chartres and Nogent did not make it all the way to Versailles, so there was only a light dusting in the area.

Then on Sunday, I woke up bright and early (well, not so bright...) at 6h30 to go with the running club to the regional championships of cross-country. It was in Onzain, about a 2 hour drive away, in a charter bus. It was pretty neat to see how a cross-country meet worked, and visit with some of the other members of the running club. Also got to do a little bit of hiking in the park area where the race was being held. And a quick drive-by of the Blois chateau, which looked absolutely stunning from the bus.

Luckily, after waking up so early on Sunday, I got to sleep in on Monday and all of my afternoon classes were canceled because of 'Courir en ville,' an event that has every primary student running around in town at a certain time. So, of course, I went and cheered on my students and they were all super cute! The giant snowflakes from this morning had stopped, so the kids had nice weather to run around and spend an afternoon outside.

Quel week-end!

This weekend was full of wonderful meals, spent in the company of good friends and new friends!

On Friday evening, I went to Le Gibet, a restaurant outside of Nogent, for a soiree with the running club. To understand the French, you must understand their meal schedule. A 7:30pm meeting time for dinner seems reasonable, right? Well, the running club's director (my ride) and I arrived at 7:30...and were the first ones there. The others slowly trickled in, we stood around chatting and everytime someone new arrived, of course, the obligatory 2 bises on the cheeks to say Bonsoir. That means it takes about 15 minutes to say hello to everyone! But it is nice to individually greet every person in the room. So around 8:30 or so, we sit down to....the aperitif. Then, the entree (a salad)...then the main course (a beef stew kinda thing with a creamy mushroom risotto side)...then the cheese course (mmm cheese!)...then dessert (galette de roi!)...then coffee. After the meal, sitting around the table talking is quite normal, and by the time we got up to leave, it was already midnight! What a night! On a side note, I met a man who spoke perfect English, due to his being a business man that knows UNC, and Michael Jordan. Crazy to run into someone that is familiar with North Carolina enough to be, oh you're from NC, that's Raleigh right? Crazy!

And then...Saturday was a nice lazy day, went to the market as do all the Nogentaise, then a friend from Chartres came to visit and see the chateau St-Jean, so I showed her around. Then, we both headed back for a Mexican fiesta, sponsored by the wonderful Spanish assistants in Chartres that are from Mexico. They cooked dinner, which was amazing!! Guacamole, pico de gallo, quesadillas, salsa, enchildas with mole sauce (a chocolate/chili sauce which is AMAZING). And of course, all of this was made from scratch! It's been a while since I've had Mexican food since it's near impossible to find in France (especially Nogent) so that was a welcome variation on the French bread and cheese diet.

After all this eating this weekend, it's a good thing I have the running club to go to on Monday night! I'll definitely be needing to keep that up if I hope to fit in my jeans in the future!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well, made it back to Nogent safe and sound on Wed. Jan 6th. After dreading going back to a full day of teaching from 8:30 to 4:30 on Thursday, with jet lag and everything, my prayers were answered as it snowed about 10 inches on Wed night. Even though school was not cancelled, I did not have to go in to my early classes as the teachers couldn’t make it in through the snow. I went to my next class and there was a grand total of….6 students. So we made snowflakes...and colored them...again. Then for my next class, we played Pictionary and hangman since there was 14 students. For some reason, this class just decided to all show up even with the snow. The snow is really pretty, and everything looked so wintery! It’s also quite chilly- below freezing everyday, so the snow hasn’t really been going anywhere. But the gendarmes and snowplows have been hard at work, and now the roads look pretty good and the sidewalks are mostly shoveled. Just lots of piles of snow remaining on the side of the road.

There's no place like home for the holidays

Hello all. Sorry about the delays, I've been getting quite lazy about blogging. Anyhow, I am currently in good ole' North Carolina for Christmas and New Year's and am still a little shocked at how BIG everything is. Hah. It's been great to speak English, hear English, and see friends and family for the best season of the year.

Before leaving Nogent however, I did go on a weekend get-away to Strasbourg, the Capital of Christmas, with Emma, another assistant in Chartres. We had a great time browsing the hundreds of Christmas markets, eating way too much delicious French food, and attempting to stay warm. The city was decorated beautifully for Christmas, with a giant Christmas tree, lights on every street and all that. It really put me in the Christmas spirit and was a nice break from little Nogent.

On the Thursday of the last week before vacation, it also snowed! And I mean a good snow too, at least 2 inches, covering the streets and sidewalks and rooftops. It was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, school was not canceled so I still had to bike around to my schools, but everyone was in a festive mood and most of my kids made snowflakes instead of actually learning anything. "Fold here. Cut here. NO, here." They really enjoyed that and were amazed at how they could just fold some paper, cut a few times, and voila! a lovely snowflake.

Luckily, my flight out wasn't until Monday, so the travel delays and difficulties that the snow caused didn't affect me too much, other than stressing about it all Sunday night and slipping and sliding my way to the train station early Monday morning. But I made it home, on time and in one piece which was fantastic.

Bonnes fetes de fin d'annee a tous!