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 

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

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

Being sick

Bonjour à tous!

I've been mildly sick for the last couple weeks, until last Thursday when my throat started to hurt. And then this weekend when I started to cough. I should prooooobably go to the doctor, but I have a special case of laziness about these things (see: last May when I had bronchitis for three weeks before going to the doctor or this summer when I had mono for two weeks before seeing the doctor because of the all-body hives that broke out). Being sick, however, has not prevented me from doing things. Except it's gotten me out of a lot of bisous (AH NON NON NON NON ATTENDS! JE SUIS MALADE). (I apologise to S whom I bisoued despite the sickness.)

This weekend was very fun, rather relaxing (all good given my sickness' turn for the very present). Friday, S and I went over to Port Louis where we discovered that entrance to the citadelle was free for us. On the way there, we accidentally took one boat to and from the other side of the river because I thought it made two stops, the second at Port Louis (which is what it does on Sundays, the other time I'd been there). We did not walk into the water and we had to run after our bus because the busses switched numbers at the roundabout where we were waiting. The museums at Port Louis turned out to be rather fabulous. In fact, I have been incredibly impressed by all the Lorient-area museums I've been to. They are very well done. We also had lunch at a really lovely crêperie, where the lady gave us maps of the island and we had shrimp curry crêpes. Delicious.

Saturday, S, D and A came over to Quéven to visit me! My first visitors! Hahaha. Unfortunately, it was raining out which pretty much cancelled out everything I had planned for them. Instead, we bought tea and cookies at my Leclerc and watched music videos in my little room. Afterward, S, A and I went to the movies to see L'art d'aimer. There was some miscommunication, however, and two of us ended up with tickets to Les adoptés. We did not realise this until later, after the movie. We ended up watching Les adoptés and it was so, so good. It's definitely up there as one of my favorite movies I've seen so far.

Sunday, S, A and I went to Le Gandhi, a delicious albeit expensive authentic Indian restaurant. Samosas nom nom nom. I tried a hot sauce which irritated my throat and caused a coughing fit that led to tears. It was apparently very attractive.

Monday was the second stage for the elementary school assistants in Morbihan. I brought along a box of tissues and used them up during the all day stage. I also sneezed and coughed a lot. Luckily, the stage leaders are very very sweet. It was a lot of fun and gave me a lot of ideas for what else to do with my elem kids. Though I was sad to miss out on a day of working with my elem kids by doing this, I was very happy with what I learned.

Today, I'm still sick. Womp. As soon as I walked into the school, the lady at the welcome desk (who was talking with others at the time) said "Mais tu as l'air malade!" Me: Oh yeah, I'm a little sick, but it's not a big deal. The people she was talking with turned out and stared at me. Fun times. Then I went off and ad-libbed a lesson on Christmas with some 6èmes. Luckily, I had a nice long break between that and my second class of the day, so I went back and slept some more, apparently making myself look far less sick. Yay! In fact, at the end of my second class a student (a 4eme) came up and said I was very beautiful. Brown noser. I know I look like shit right now, but merci quand même.

Coming up today: more sleep and Breton class, where I will continue to not bisou people (I was sick enough last week not to, now I apparently look sick enough that no one will want to).

Friendly, germ-free smiles,

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

Rebonjour!

Three pictures, because I care:

At first I was not so happy about walking to work this morning in the dark, then I saw the sunrise and decided it was okay.

This house/these houses are behind chez moi and I really love them. Especially on this day when there was smoke coming out of the chimney and it was a super gray day.

I drew uniforms of different professions for the elementary kids. They are currently preparing a project for the mediatheque (library, more or less) in which they dress up in their parents' occupations' clothing. So I drew these to show some American uniforms and teaching them police officer/doctor/firefighter/cowboy and mailman (not pictured). Next week, when I cover Halloween I'll use them again. Perfect!

Oh hey didn't see you there

Today I bring to you a random assortment of thoughts:

1. Just about everything is cheaper for students/young people/people with small salaries. This includes everything from lunches for faculty to Breton lessons. When I arrived for my first Breton class (a group class) the teacher was like oh well... since you are a student (I'm not...), we will something out for you. Well, okay.... Pas mal.
2. Speaking of my Breton lessons, I love them. I've only had one so far, but the group is super amusing and even if I don't learn to speak Breton I'm going to have an excellent time linguistics-nerding-it-up.
3. I love French kids. Aside from half of one class (out of 30 classes at the middle school... so I won't see them often), the students are really lovely and wonderful. They're inquisitive and excited to meet a foreigner. They don't always like to speak English (they can be really shy about it), but sometimes they surprise me with their enthusiasm.
4. The primary school students... oh my goodness... they are so precious. Now that they all recognize me when I come into the school courtyard, a crowd of ten to twenty will run up and start asking me questions. Or just staring at me. I've gotten very used to being stared at. One little girl (a 6 year old, so she hasn't started English yet/won't have me in class) ran up to me today and asked if I was the one she saw at Leclerc yesterday. Well, little girl, I don't know what to tell you. I was at Leclerc yesterday, so maybe yes. Girl: huh? Me: It could have been me. I didn't see you, but maybe it was me. Girl: huh? Me: ... it was me. Girl: yayyyyyy! (runs off to friends)
5. The elem kids LOVE language games. I will describe some of them in an upcoming post.
6. When I mess up in French life, I don't mind too much because they lead me to Unique Speaking Opportunities (which I will now call USOs). Thus far, these have included a really nice chat with a taxi driver when I missed the last bus back to Quéven, asking a stranger about getting a taxi, talking on the phone with all sorts of people about bureaucratic paper-y French business. I like USOs. Because of USOs, I now say oui to surveys and don't get upset when I do stupid stuff like miss the bus because it came a minute early and wasn't marked the normal way. Who cares, I got back earlier than the bus anyway.
7. I now have a Tabac where the people know me, but no boulangerie. There are two and they seem to alternate being open late afternoons. As such, I have not succeeded in claiming one as my own and I feel super guilty for cheating on both of them. I'm sorry boulangeries, I've tried.

Okay, that's all for now. France is awesome, as always. I've finally met the other language assistants in the department and they're wonderful. I'm sure you'll hear more about them soon.

Bisous

MCJ

Bienvenue!

Just a quick post to say I arrived and am having an amazing time. Everyone is so nice! A nice long post has been written with photos of my room (I have failed to take any others whoops).

Things I have done:

• had a two hour long dnc style conversation covering such topics as the death penalty, Perry, the EU and even Boehner.
• bought a demi baguette at a boulangerie
• started a French bank account
• met lots and lots of teachers
• passed out a couple times
• faire d la bise
• drank Perrier and liked it

General takeaways

• everyone is insanely nice
• QUEVEN is very charming. :)

Bisous

MCJ

My Future Students

Flash mob Collège Kerbellec 2011

I think my first lesson might be, "What is a flash mob?" Nevertheless, it's cute. I suspect it was their last day of class.

On a related note, if you can think of conversation topics for 11 to 14 year olds that speak only basic English (numbers, colors and shapes...), I am very open to suggestions! I will be working with the Collège students in groups of twelve to fourteen with conversation. I hope they like the Biebz.

For future assistants/people looking for French resources:

A live stream of the TF1 channel that works outside of France. (The same website has a lot of streaming content of French videos, they other night I found them streaming all of Kaamelott and Les Inconnus) I do not vouch for its legality, etc. etc. and from the TF1 website, the program schedule.