Paris

During my last couple weeks of class, I talked about clichés and differences between America and France. One of the videos I used was Shit Americans Say in Paris.

I've been in Paris since Monday. I had mixed feelings about coming here for a week, but I'll admit that any reservations I had melted away during my taxi ride from Montparnasse. Oh yeah, I said to myself, I do love Paris. It's been a great couple days during which I've been wandering around muttering "Paris... Paris... Paris" to myself with the same accent as in that video.

Paris.

P.s. Don't worry mom, I haven't been using other quotes from that video. ;)

Kenavo (farewells, part 2)

Yesterday, I left Brittany. It was a mixed-bag of feelings:
Happiness with an excellent time there
Sadness that it was over
Awkwardness that I was being ridiculous waving to friends while sitting across from a very attractive Frenchman in first class.

This post, however, is not going to be a discussion of yesterday. I'm going to talk about Saturday, my real day of goodbyes.

Note to everyone: NEVER agree to two meals (even if one is called an apéritif and the other is called "come see my house") in one day in France. Though delicious and highly amusing, it is something of a stretch for any person's stomach. Oof.

Saturday at lunch, ma belle cavalière, aka my Breton dance partner, came and picked me up for a visit at her house. This visit ended up being a crazy delicious six-hour lunch with her family. Magret de canard, merguez, veal sausage, lots of cheeses, marinaded anchovies (even if you think you don't like anchovies, try this if you get the chance), homemade ratatouille, cheeses and a lovely strawberry tart. It was a really enjoyable meal and another fun look into French family life, including teenage angst. (The French: they're just like us! Only not!) Sidenote: there was the usual overabundance of bisous, even from the random neighbor boy who came by. Now that I'm in Paris with Americans, I have to say I actually miss bisous. I did not expect that to happen. It was really jarring for me today to meet people and not have the usual bisous/enchantée routine.

At the end, ma belle cavalière and I went on a little tour of Pont Scorff:

There was a very Breton wedding going on, which we crashed (I mean, the doors were open...). We also did a little tour of the artist ateliers around town. If you're ever in the region, I definitely recommend a trip to Pont Scorff. Not only is it completely charming and authentically Breton, the many artist studios are interesting, unique and filled with warm, talkative people. The pays de Lorient region where I live is Breton but does not always look so. During World War II, it was heavily bombed due to Germany's encampment there. America was the bomber and we managed to destroy everything but the German submarine bases. Pont-Scorff, only 30 or so minutes from Lorient, however, seems to have escaped completely unscathed. The current town hall was the former house of a prince and interesting sculptures are waiting to be discovered around the town. The cour des métiers d'art is a great place to go if you're searching for a unique gift. Fortunately I had left my wallet at home and couldn't be tempted into buying any pieces. 

Balloons all ready to fly away. 

This outfit earned me many a "Mais t'es toute belle ce soir!" 

The very Breton wedding. The door were open and we actually went in to watch. 

After the little tour, I was returned chez moi so that I could then be picked up to go to an apéritif at the president of Spered Kewenn (the local Breton association). I knew going into the apéro that it was very possible that this would be one of those apéros that is actually a dinner. I still thought, however, that the apéritif would be a somewhat short affair. Silly me. Silly, silly, silly me. It was six hours long and could have definitely been longer had people not needed to get up to vote in the morning.

It was an unforgettable evening. My Breton classmates and a few members of my dance class were in attendance. I was so incredibly touched that they all turned up to wish me farewell and a hopeful à bientôt. One of my classmates made me a little bag hand-embroidered with a Breton pattern and another woman baked a cake decorated with an American flag (myrtille for the blue, bananas for the white and strawberries for the red) and a single Breton flag. Another classmate made a far (a type of Breton cake) with apples. SO DELICIOUS. Normally fars are made with fig. Apples take the cake. Miam.

Hand-embroidered bag. 

A Breton-American cake. 

An apple-far cake. 

As the night wore on, after the champagne bottles had been emptied and the wine bottles dwindled down, the singing started. As it was the first Saturday of May, I sang My Old Kentucky Home (far away).  Breton songs were sung, as well as the French drinking song, Il faut que je m'en aille.

After the tea and coffee, but before les pruneaux. 

To finish off the night, we had traditional pruneaux. These are prunes soaked in eau de vie. At that point, my properly drunk classmate told me how much the class was going to miss me and how wonderful it was to have some youth in the class. He said that my being there allowed for such a night to happen. Normally it is only the "extremists" that sing Breton songs at a dinner, but because of me, even non-extremists partook in such an occasion. "Tu as marqué le coin," he said, but the truth is that I am the one that has been most changed and most marked by them. It's hard to part, but I know that I will always be welcome back. 

Buvons encore une dernière fois (Let's drink another, one last time)

A l'amitié, l'amour, la joie (To friendship, love and joy)

On a fêté nos retrouvailles (We've enjoyed our meetings)

Je m'ennuie pas, mais il faut que je m'en aille. (I'm not bored, but I must leave) 

-- Graeme Allwright 

What I'm up to tonight

(Further updates on recent life to come, but for now I think I'll enjoy the sunset.)

Goodbyes

I had to stop by the primary school today to pick up a flashdrive I left behind, so I tried to show up a few minutes after school let out to minimize the amount of crazy I stirred up. I still managed to pass many students along the way and I suspect there are a lot of parents that now know who that Mais-oui character is. I'm gonna miss hearing "AH! YAH MAIOUI!" English r's are super hard for French kiddos. The few students still in the school courtyard literally chased me down (as I ran after one of the student-life assistants myself to give them something back) and demanded bisous. No longer being an employee of the académie de Rennes, I complied and received bonbons and more bisous for my pains. I'm going to miss them.

With that in mind, I thought I'd share some of my favorite student notes (there's good chance I'll share even more as time goes on. I haven't gotten through them all yet.....) :

From a CM1 (a 9/10 year old), unprompted and all on her own (I love my job):

Mary, I loved doing English with you, you were very smily and you taught us many things. And to help us learn, you had us play games. We had a lot of fun with you. I thank you very much for everything. To have you with us was too great. I hope that we weren't too difficult with you. (As if, you were all angels, angels, I tell ya!)

Thank you for everything. 

I adore you Mary. 

Thank you very much. 

From (student)

I adore you.

(British flag) (Breton flag) (student name) (My students were never too clear on the fact I'm not English. I probably should have done more drilling on how, though I speak English, I am not in fact English.)

From a 4ème (in fact, from the good half of my worst class):

(English parts I think you can read)

I will miss you!

(est-ce que tu baise[s]?) <-- I'm not translating that here, but don't worry, google will translate it for you. Yeah. A student wrote that. OH KIDS..... This class is the one that has a kid "amoureux" de moi. (Edit: It looks like that might be some sort of cultural thing. There was a Ze Inconnus sketch called that... but it was about picking up chicks, from what the quick google description tells me. My connection is pretty slow, so it'll be a while before I can fully check up on this. Feel free to tell me if you know.)

 From a CM1/2 in the class that had a farewell party for me. I was depicted as the statue of liberty in a lot of these images....:

 Statue of liberty: There are skyscrapers that make the letters of my name! And people that say they will miss me!
Crowd: You will be welcome... in FRANCE! 
Oh SNAP! kiddos, I see what you did there. I love y'all. There are little people on all the buildings that have signs spelling out "we will miss you."

From the same class:

You were my best English mistress. (hehehehe, in France, primary school teachers are called Maître/Maîtresse)
When you leave, my heart will hurt. Thank you for everything. 

Thank you for the English. (I just really, really liked this picture.)

BEST THING EVER: THE SONG MY CM1/2s WROTE AND SANG FOR ME. Sung to "We Will Rock You." I'm sorry I didn't record it. So very, very sorry. It was really frickin' adorable.:

(In case it's not legible....:

Mary you're a girl make a good job
Teaching in the class gonna be a big girl some day
Can have a smile on your face
There's no disgrace
We speak English all over the place


We all, we all thank you
We all, we all thank you


Mary you're a young girl, good girl
Being under your feet, we give you our word today
Don't have tears on your face
There's no disgrace
Giving us fun all over the place


We will, we will miss you
We all, we all love you)

Okay. I'm gonna get back to packing and not thinking about how much I'm going to miss all the people here.

OH ALSO, any future assistants that may find themselves here, don't hesitate to contact me with any questions. :)