Oh hey blog heyyyyy

So much to update on before I have to "actually, really, no, seriously" start studying for finals. Because, you know, finals here are all that my grade will be based on.

Dear wonderful friend that sent me the card (you know who you are), I miss you and love you and the card is now on my wall making me very, very, very happy.

So... November. It feels as though yesterday was Halloween, but that is very much not the case. A lot happened. Good golly did a lot happen. I will pare it down for you though to: Revisiting Brittany! and THANKSGIVING for 20!!!

I'm kind of tired, though, seeing as it is 2h14 here so I'll present this in pictures:

Yay Breton coast! Mmm sea air. 

Hello Atlantic, I've missed you. Pokoù. 

Fantastically good home-cooked French meal. Nomnomnom. The family with whom I stayed knows I love duck, so they made me a classic French dish with the pork switched out for confit de canard. Holy shit, best meal ever?

Fest-Noz Quéven 2012! It was great to be back and to see everyone and to dance like a Breton. 

My dear Canadian friend and I had a photo shoot in the streets of Lorient. Guess what, it was a Sunday. That is why there was NO ONE else around. 

When I got back, I started cooking and baking. This is the apple pie I made (entirely from scratch), please note the apple shaped bit in the middle. It looks burned here, but it wasn't. It was fantastic. 

There were 20 of us total, I was the only American. I made 4 roast chickens, stuffing, cornbread, a sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce (soooo goooood), sautéed green beans with pink onions and 4 pies (1 apple, 1 pumpkin and, of course, 2 derby pies). The French adored the sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce and derby pies. Proud to say that two of those things had bourbon in them. Just doing my part for the Kentucky economy by making new populations love Bourbon. 

My room (where the eating happened), during a brief moment after a few of the guests had arrived but had been moved into the kitchen. I would post pictures from when everyone was in the room, but I try not to post pictures of other people so... sorry. 

So many bags. 

Aftermath, after the guests had left. 

So much food to figure out what to do with. 

My wonderful flatmate N and I put everything away and cleaned all the dishes. This may be my favorite picture as it represents a night well finished. 

Food for WEEKS. 

I was pretty pleased with myself for defleshing the chicken the next day and using the carcasses to make stock. I had no idea how gelatinous home-made chicken stock is. Fascinating. 

I hope that you all had wonderful Thanksgivings (even if you're not American/Canadian). 

I am so thankful to be back in France, to have a wonderfully supportive family who is encouraging me to have this adventure and to have amazing friends who put up with my inability to keep in contact. 

Much love, 

MCJ

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 

Back for the goodbyes

It's really weird coming back from vacation only to be saying goodbye constantly to everyone. Spain was fantastic, but I'll probably save talking about it for this summer when it seems like I'll have a looot of free time.

This Monday, I took the TCF exam (test de connaissance du français). I don't think it went as well as I would have liked after dominating my practice exams, but I'm reasonably confident I still got at least a B2 that would allow me to study in France. We'll see... in like two months. The only way I could see it turning out to be less would be if the optional tests weighted into the final score and my scattered responses to the oral expression were completely unsatisfactory. ANYWAY, not worth thinking about now. What will be, will be.

The test, despite its late beginnings, actually finished nearly on time, meaning I was able to make it to work on time. Yeah! Well, technically a minute late, but I had warned I might be much, much later so let's say I was early. What I walked into was my 9-11 year olds' spontaneous sex talk. It went somewhat overtime, so basically I sat in the back of the class for an hour and a half listening to my lil kiddos say what they already knew and learn what actually happens. (They anonymously wrote down what they knew and what questions they had and placed them into boxes at the front. The teacher then went through them all aloud.) These kids were actually pretty savvy. Unlike in America, you didn't hear anyone spouting off nonsense about storks. I was so impressed with how the teacher handled the subject and the class. It probably helps that the subject is not so taboo here (one discussion I overheard at a teacher lunch table here was on different foods' effects on erections). At first, some kids would giggle when hearing zizi or pénis or foufon (I'm not sure of spelling here since it's kiddy slang) or le sexe, but the teacher said "Okay, we're going to hear another word that's going to make you giggle.... Foot. .... Ear. .... Penis. See? It's just a scientific word for the anatomy. It's okay if you say zizi, because we can use words even like zizi to speak about things scientifically."

My kiddos also discussed periods which meant at recess, this conversation occurred:

Girl A: Mary, do you have your period?
Mary: Yes.
Girl B: Duh she has her period, she's not a child.
Girl C: Yeah, but she could have problems and then she wouldn't be able to get pregnant.
Girl A: Would you be sad if you had problems and couldn't have kids?
Mary: Well, yes, perhaps at first, but there are so many children without parents and I think it'd be a good thing to adopt. I could still have kids.
Girls ABC: But still....
Girl B: Have you got an amoureux?
Mary: No.
Girl B: Oh, that'd be nul to not have an amoureux.(N.B. Nul means lame here.)
Mary: hahahaha

Sadly, my next work days were less exciting. I had my last 3emes class (those are the oldest at the collège, freshman in high school aged) and just had a charming bunch of 5emes. We discussed differences between France and the US. (YOU DON'T DO THE BISE???) Apparently I say bisou funnily.

Last night was my last Breton class. The next two Tuesdays are French holidays (oh France...). We've decided to organize a little goodbye soirée which is nice since not everyone was able to make it to the class yesterday.

ELECTIONS!!! My goodness, they have been so much fun to watch. Perhaps I'll write something more about that later, but right now I need to prepare for 5emes, round 2. Wish me luck....

Bisous (said funnily) and hugs (said and executed properly),

MCJ

Bonne année!

Happy new year, dear friends!

Despite my being sick for roughly a quarter of it, 2011 has been a wonderful year. I feel so lucky to be in France right now in my little town. At face value, it might seem that being placed in my town would, well, suck. In fact, one of my French professors told her (French) friend about my being placed in a small Breton town and the friend's reaction was "oh... well that's too bad."

It might seem like this would be an unfortunate placement for someone my age, however, the reality is that being here has exposed me to some wonderful opportunities that would have been harder to come by. Namely, I mean being welcomed so warmly into the Breton culture of my little town. I feel so lucky and I am so lucky. I've made great friends within that association and with other assistants. I will be sad to leave these people in May, but I know that it won't be the last time I see any of them.

This time last year, I was sitting in front of my computer going "shit... I actually REALLY really need to start writing this French essay for TAPIF." and "FUCK! What regions SHOULD I list??? And in what order?" and also "Really, MCJ? Really? You left this to the last minute. Really?" Luckily, it worked out and I got my second choice for academies (the Rennes academy, aka BRITTANY where the best students are).

Since I last wrote, the parents and I have visited: Bayeux, the Normandy beaches, the American cemetary, Mont Saint-Michel, Cancale (where we didn't eat oysters. oops), St Malo, Carnac (holy beeswax! them's a lot of megaliths), Guidel Plage/Larmor-Plage/everything in between, Lorient and, of course, Quéven. We've been putting some good miles on our rental car.

I hope the next year brings you as much joy as 2011 has brought me.

Bloavezh mad!

Much love,

MCJ

VACANCES pt deux

Larmor Plage, the day after a storm

Courtesy of my sixièmes, snowmen

Monster Snowman

Bonsoir my lovely friends and family (except for my parents, who should be boarding their plane to France right about now)!

I'm sorry about my incredible lack of posts since the sickness. I'm all better now! Yay! I'd been putting off posting as I worked through an existential crisis.

I'm also very sorry to the personal friends that will get the next news from this rather than "in person." Also to said friends, LET'S SKYPE THIS WEEK!!! I will have access to wifi this week at all hours. Wonderful!

So, big news, I've decided not to apply to grad school in the US for next fall. I'm not 100% on my plans for next year aside from my hope that it be in France, Austria or Germany next year. I'm looking into grad school in France next year. French grad school is cheaper than American grad school, by which I mean the schools I've looked at are less than a thousand euros a year INCLUDING paying for social security to the state (which shouldn't really count). For the summer, I'll be back in the US. I'm looking into working with disabled children over the summer (or doing something similar that would relate to a future speech language pathology career). In the meantime, I'm researching grad programs here and prepping for the DALF exam.

I could write really profound things about this, but I'm le tired and I'll be getting up earlyesque to meet my parents at the airport!

Highlights from the last week of classes:

- Singing "You are my sunshine" for the Breton Association's end of the year soirée

- Getting a lovely card from one of my sixième classes.

- Going to an amazing dinner at one of the Spanish assistants' with her lovely, fun friends.

- Going to Lorient's Christmas fair (the rides were only 2Euros, what, like, half the price of the same rides at the Texas state fair/Houston rodeo)

- Giving my Monday primary kids American cookies. "Miam miam miam miam miam miam miam miam."

Much love,

MCJ

Mary, the American who likes Breton culture!

An article about me appeared in the Lorient edition of Ouest-France. You can see in the picture me with the rest of my class (but not the teacher... he got cropped out?). Breton is going well. I'm understanding more but am nowhere near producing anything on my own, granted there have only been four classes so far with two weeks off in the middle.

I love my Breton class a lot.

Also, I'm getting really good at bisous now. Y'all would be proud.

Bisous,

MCJ, l'Américaine qui aime la culture bretonne