Wednesday, November 3, 2010

PHOTOS! For those of you sans Facebook

Here are a public links to copy and paste to some of my travel pictures:


Istanbul: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2171065&id=29903300&l=aa2ac5d2ad
Arcachon: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2176551&id=29903300&l=ac1d7b82ee

Bordeaux: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172358&id=29903300&l=f914b78193 
Scotland: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2176718&id=29903300&l=4be723a95b

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Much to Catch up on! The Rainbow Song, Edinburgh, Halloween etc!

The last week before we had Toussaint vacation, I got my kids to sing the Rainbow song!!! It was incredible how excited they were to sing the song. They love the attention and getting up to perform it. Even my most difficult classes did it! TRIUMPH.

I have had quite a few people crashing chez moi the last few weeks. It is very difficult to find places to live in Bordeaux. One is a gal named Crystal from Reno. She finally found a place! Her roommate is rather beau... Needless to say whenever we leave the apartment we have a giggle fit. We went to Ikea yesterday to furnish her room.

The day before break, I decided to just make the jump to visit my Fordham friend, Grant, in Edinburgh. I got lucky because these are apparently the last flights Ryanair is providing from Bordeaux to Edinburgh this year. My friend is visiting home on break from playing for the Cyprus Footy team.

Edinburgh is lovely and it was nice to speak comfortably in my mother tongue. Even though when I first got there my head hurt because I could not decide if I should speak French, accented English or with my own accent!!! Oh the woes of being a traveler ;-).

I went on a walking tour with my hostel that filled me in on all of the legends of the city. It was a great time to go right before Halloween! The inspiration for many haunted stories like Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde and Harry Potter are right there in Edinburgh.

Not many of the people in Edinburgh, that I ran into, were Scottish.  My friend was the only one I really heard!

Met a cool couple from San Francisco the first night at my hostel. They were in Scotland to follow a Punk band for work. When Grant and I walked into the pub the next night, I saw them and I said, "Oh! I know them!" Grant was quite tickled by the fact that I knew people, in his home town, as soon as I walked into the pub.

We visited the Castle, Stirling and Lithgow-William Wallace country (FREEDOM!!!). Too bad I didn't have my blue face paint. The air is so clean and fresh up there. So beautiful. (Promise to post pictures soon!)

Back in Bordeaux the troops were warming up for Halloween. Some of the assistants were throwing a party at their very large house. I picked up some fairly realistic vampire fangs in Edinburgh, whited my face and wore black lipstick for the fete. The reactions my friends and I got on the tram were priceless.

Best rule ever at this Halloween party was that everyone had to being something dead or scary!
The best costume would have to go to my friend George who was Edward Scissorhands. So funny because he couldn't really do anything with his hands, like the character.

At the party, I felt like I never left Scotland because everyone there was from Glasgow! Heard more Scottish accents in France that night than in their own country!

Now it is time to chill out, (NO GETTING SICK ALLOWED) lesson plan and prepare myself to teach for the rest of the week. I'm thinking Boy and Girl for CPs and States for the older kids.

Signing off.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Heathens in the territoire

The children at one school are a little rowdy... Example: Hugo pipi-ed in his chair...Selma pulled Collines hair and broke her pencil...Hugo won't sit in his chair correctly and fell over.  I have decided a reward system is in order.

Thank goodness for Achard! Camille loves trying to do a British accent like her Mum and Leandre gave me a heart!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

"Greving" or "Fairing la Greve"

Greve= Strike         Faire la greve= Going on strike

Today is the 4th of what will probably be many strikes for the extension of the retirement age in France.

My first encounter with this greve was with my parents in Paris when we got stuck after 15 hours of traveling from SFO to London to Paris. The last leg was, of course, Bordeaux. We couldn't get there because last minute our flight was canceled for the greve. We transferred our flight to ORLY from CDG and slept on the benches at Orly.

Since I live near a main square the Greve march was my alarm. My roommate came out of his room and said "What the hell"? lol even some of the French get annoyed by greves.

At least I don't have work today!
Maybe I'll go check out the laundromat after my run (Riveting...I know). Maybe run by the tourist office (if it is open) to see if there are buses to St. Emilion tomorrow.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Heaven in a jar...

I HAVE DISCOVERED HEAVEN IN A JAR! It is this jelly like Coconut stuff and another that is Banana to put on BREAD.  I also found peanut butter, cran juice and SPICY salsa! What grocery shopping spree!?! I even found PUMPKIN soup! It is called Witches Brew  :-). I think I am actually looking forward to eating at home this week.Taco Tuesday tomorrow night with the gals. 


Now I need to get some binders for my lesson plans. 
REALLY annoying: The French use 4 hole punched paper. What is up with that? 


The sun actually came out today and it will be out the next couple of days. Grace a Dieu! Rain made for a peaceful Sunday  though. I do love how the French do Sundays. No stress because you can't actually get anything accomplished because nothing is open. 

Day 1 of teaching

So last Friday was my first real day of teaching. I have three schools; Schweitzer, Lac II and Achard. I have four classes of CP which means around Kindergarden to 1st grade, four of CE1 CE2 which is like 2nd and 3rd grade and one CM which is like 3rd and 4th grades.

I am astonished with what my CMs know though! I hope I can be as fun and as efficient as their last english teacher.
One of my CM students asked if Michael Jackson was cremated or buried but the word for cremate in French is incinerate. Oy! You would not believe how the French worship Michael Jackson.

The CPs are quite trying because they understand so little even in French let alone have the attention span for English.
I had another first day this morning with CPs. I felt like I was banging my head against the wall trying to get them to be quite for long enough to follow directions for the name tag project.

The other thing that had me beating my head against the wall was trying to schedule and reschedule where I was going to be. None of the numbers or emails I had be given worked in order to confirm!

It is definitely going to take some time to figure this all out...

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Testing 1,2,3

Alright! My first blog post ever.
This one is going to be short even though I already have so much to share about my first month in Bordeaux. Excited to finally be up and running so I can fill you all in on my French adventures.
Gros biz xx