Having a Bâle (a Sunday in Basel)

Welcome to Switzerland!

Made by the same guy (Jeff Koons) that made Puppy outside of the Bilbao Guggenheim, this here is his dragon head outside of the Fondation Beyeler. Split-Rocker is the name. At the time it wasn't so clear, but now I see that the head is actually split and he has a bit of a rocker vibe. Aha!

The foundation. 

To the left was France. 

To the right was Germany. 

Basel is a German-speaking city in Switzerland. Being clever-like I decided to buy my ticket in German. Sadly, it turns out I'm not that clever. 

Me: A ticket for a student, please. [Awww yeah, lookit that, I can communicate things in German!]

Cashier: 12 Swiss Francs. [Whoohoo! I understood her reply! She replied in German! Things are going well.] 

Me [puts down cash and student card]

Cashier: ?!??!????! 

Me: [Fuck.]

Cashier: [Gestures something to do with the cash.]

Me: [Attempts turning the cycle the money/card has been placed on.]

Cashier: [Hella frustrated.] WHAT LANGUAGE DO YOU SPEAK? FRENCH? ENGLISH? 

Me: [Turns to German friend.]

German friend (in French): You have to take the student card off. 

Me: [Embarrassed, removes card, receives change, runs away.]

There's something very confusing about being in a German speaking place minutes away from France with Francophone companions. As part of my "studying" German this semester, I've been watching copious amounts of German tv. Sadly, none of this passive comprehensive knowledge I've received helped me there. Some people I understood, others I didn't. 

Basel likes its fountains. 

Even though I don't frequent Starbucks in the US, I was still really excited to see all the Starbucks in Basel. They're the closest ones to where I live now. Honestly, I would only really want to go in there if they had the Horizon organic chocolate milk they have in the US ones and I'm pretty sure they do not. Tant pis. 

Lots of roads like this. 

And the cathedral, of course. 

Fall is coming! Autumn is here! Pétanque!

It was a Sunday and people were few and far between on most streets. 

There was even a manif'!

(Speaking of which, I participated in my first a couple weeks ago and it was excellent. Post to come.)

Where a Nobel Prize winner worked. We went into this courtyard because we were promised a talk on the importance of the arts and kids' crafts. We did not actually find said talk (I suspect it was through the doors...) but we were not terribly upset by this. 

The queen says hello on an utterly empty street. 

The Rhine follows me everywhere. 

The Griffin seems to be a symbol for Basel. Haven't looked this up to confirm, but he's EVERYWHERE. 

Along with the symbol on that flag. This is a little ferry that goes across the Rhein, it's operated by a motor that stretches across the river and the poles to which were put into place during the 19th century. 

A friend and I had the same reaction: HARRY POTTER. 

Life is going well. I have a week and a half before the Toussaint holiday and lots to get done in that time (including what is essentially my final in one class). I should get on that.... Last Saturday, we had a debate in class (we were assigned sides randomly) and I saved my team in a heroic fashion. So much so, that when we had another debate in class today my team tried to make me be one of the speakers, despite my not having contributed anything to the prep discussion. I declined today, which I still feel bad about. The fact is, living in another language, some days you have good speaking days and other days you have bad ones. Today happened to be a bad one. It was just hard to focus on things in French today. Given that today's format would be addressing things brought up by the other team it just didn't seem like a great idea for me. And sitting/listening through it, I know I made the right call. My team did great without me speaking. 

For Toussaint, I'm planning on going to the UK to visit some friends and to travel with my dear friend D from last year who is back in Brittany assistant-ing! I just need to buy tickets to get there. 

Big bisous, 

MCJ

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

A million emails

My head is full of things like:

En espérant..., en attendant..., dans l'attente de votre réponse....
je vous prie d'accepter... agréer... l'expression de mes salutations distinguées.

School's out for... easter! I'm the last person in the school, save one. I've got to get in -- or rather OUT-- my last emails and print out last letters and CVs. Phwew.

This last week has been utterly amazing and a constant reminder that I am going to miss this place

And now I've got to leave before the alarm

Behind but spring is early!

I'm really behind on updating this, but that's just because I've been having a wonderful time and keeping myself busy figuring out the future.

Things occupying my time:
Work
Finally going on that roadtrip
Studying for the TCF (Test de Connaissance de Français)
Enjoying the crazy good weather (like, crowded beaches with sunbathers good)
Finally writing that lettre de motivation... oops.

Lettres de motivation are so... weird. So much of French writing is incredibly formulaic. I'll be taking the optional writing test on the TCF and it seems like the major component to succeeding that section is simply knowing how you're supposed to write French letters, des synthèses and other French arguments.

The day light savings shift means it is now light out at 9pm. This means that eating dinner even at 8pm seems way too early. Ahhh change.

Today I had to send a kid back to his teacher for disrupting the class. Sigh. I really don't like doing that.

Bisous!

MCJ

faire ses choux gras

faire ses choux gras is a French idiom meaning to profit or take advantage (of a situation). According to my handy book La puce à l'oreille which is full of the histories and meanings of French idioms, this originated in the middle ages when the poor only had vegetables -- more or less -- to eat. The idiom literally means make one's cabbages fatty. The cabbages (choux) were quite common in idioms originating during that time due to their prevalence in the poor's cuisine (thanks to their ability to survive all sorts of weather). When one was doing well, they were able to fatten their choux, hence faire ses choux gras meaning to do well.

I am hoping this year to faire mes choux gras. I leave on Sunday and am getting pretty nervous (still excited, of course). Even though I spent the past four years away from home, this is entirely new adventure. This is the first time I'll truly be on my own. Luckily, my contact teacher has been excessively kind and it seems like she's really preparing things for me (asking me about preferred foods, allergies, etc).  It's going to be strange to be at the mercy of other people's kindness and patience, it will be humbling, it will be a great experience. As someone that wants to work in an occupation of helping others to regain (or improve) their language abilities, it will be very good to put myself into a situation where I won't always be fully able to articulate my needs and confusions. It is good to be humbled.

Additionally, I will have limited access to the internet this coming year (don't worry! I'll have enough to update my blog regularly, it just may be that the photos come in sporadically). This will make the challenge of figuring out how to contact home/skype particularly interesting. This, too, is a good thing. I need to learn how to keep in contact with friends and family. My family can easily attest to the fact that I'm terrible about calling home or writing. This year will have to be different. Without 24 hour access to the internet, too, I won't be able to spend all day on the internet. This, too, is a very good thing. I'm not going to France to facebook, I'm going to experience France.

All the fears I have (meeting people, opening a bank account..., not committing too many social gaffes and so on) will ultimately strengthen me as a person IF I force myself to overcome them. As I see it, there is no other option than to ignore my fears and stride boldly on. In that vein, I have a few goals for myself:

1. Couchsurf at least once when traveling
2. Attend some sort of meet up with mostly French people soon after arrival
3. Strike up a DNC-style conversation on a train (my favorite French professor with whom I traveled twice to France, DNC, had an amazing knack at conversing with anyone and everyone, I hope to be fearless like her)
4. Learn how to eat seafood. Despite spending many summers in Maine, I never learned how to eat oysters or lobster or anything beyond fish, kind of. I'm sure I eat boned fish wrong. In any case, as I will be on the Breton coast this next year, I should become better acquainted with seafood. I hear it's exceptionally exquisite.

This is an incomplete list, certainly, but one to get me going so that I can faire mes choux gras. Bonne chance à moi!

HON HON HON: or how I came to love French

Since my wee childom, I have loved languages. I will credit this with learning that my Great-Grandmother had been of Welch ancestry, but I suspect it began much earlier. I oft wished growing up that we went to the Greek Orthodox church across the street so I could learn Greek (what a great use of church! learning another language!). I had two Usborne First Thousand Words in [Language] books and I thought they were the best things ever. I had the German and the Spanish and loved looking through them for the little duck while "learning" German and Spanish. My mom quickly caught on that I was interested in languages and gave me possibly the best gift for a 90s child with a passion for languages: Rock 'n Learn French volume 1 (with cassette!). I tore through that shit and had the whole cassette memorized. "Hello. Bonjour! Hello Bonjour! How are you? Ça va?Fine, thank you. Bien, merci. What is your name? Comment t-appelles-tu? My name is Jean. Je m'appelle Jean." This tiny book ignited a love of the French language. Though the other books had helped me in my love of languages, it was probably hearing the French language (and on-command... all the time) that led to my particular admiration for French. (As a side note, I would make my mom read me Rottkäppchen in German a lot when I was a kid, but there's only so many times you can ask that of your mom. :) )

Ignoring an extended foray into Welsh (which included the creation of a website dedicated to learning Welsh which I can't link due to it having been on the now defunct geocities), I focused on French. Then, one day, fifth-grade-me got extraordinarily lucky. A new neighbor moved in... and she was French! and she taught French! So my mom's friend, my mom and I began to take group lessons in French from our neighbor (heretofore to be referred to as Madame. While there are sure to be many more Madames in this blog, she is and will always be my first Madame). I cannot express how lucky I was to learn from Madame at such an early age. Using le nouveau sans frontières series, we learned in a very oral-focused fashion. Writing and reading can be learned later with practice (and, trust me, I got my comeuppance later when I took my first French class in college and realized in Pre-Revolutionary French that I had never written an essay in French. Oy. I learned quickly), but learning early on that it is possible for you to communicate with a native speaker of your target language is incredibly empowering. I'm not going to pretend like I don't get really shy about speaking to French people (scratch that, new people), but my French beginnings definitely have kept me going where I might otherwise have stopped.

This is not to say French was never uncontested for my admirations. Junior year, my high school offered the opportunity to take Chinese after school for college credit. Hello I was all over that, but my parents insisted I had to drop something from my schedule. The only thing that they would agree to was French. So for a year, I did not take French. BUT I wanted to go to Paris through a program that summer, so I studied on my own. That year, yeah, I learned some Chinese, but my French grew leaps and bounds. I bought a giant French workbook (that came with cassettes! Yeah!... in a weird way I think they make me more committed than CDs or mp3s). That year, I worked my way through the entire workbook, learning, finally, how to spell and write all the grammar I'd been hearing the past six years. For the first time ever, I began to really read in French. There were two books that were "breakthroughs" for me: Le petit Nicolas and La cantatrice chauve (suivi de La leçon). The first was my first "chapter book" I ever read the whole way through in French, the second (two plays by Ionesco) was the first real "adult" book I read the whole way through in French. That summer, I went to Paris for a month to study French and learned all my studying that year had payed off. It was an amazing experience. I still can't describe what it was to walk along the Seine and just be in France. I even got to see both La cantatrice chauve and La leçon at the famous Théatre de la Huchette (and then again two summers later). It was a summer I'll never forget. Now, though, it's time for me to get to know France beyond the Seine.

Yayyyyyy Me (left) and Ionesco (smiling, right), 2006.

Also, today I got a haircut so I'll look more professional (hah). Here are a couple pictures of me practicing teacher looks, too bad the glasses aren't real.

Nice teacher.

Not-as-nice teacher.

Please note the scary mound of packing behind my left shoulder. Aiyo. Gotta get to work.

And apparently I've reverted to 2006 me. I got the same haircut. Huh.