La vie provincial

I’m finally getting around to blogging my adventures in France from the first week in April.  I left Galicia and headed to beautiful Provence to visit family friends in the little village of Malaucene.  I have been so lucky this past year that we have had so many friends and relatives in Europe that I have had the opportunity to visit!  When Kevan and Jennifer picked me up at the airport, they warned me that Malaucene doesn’t have any exciting nightlife or amazing shopping, but there were a lot of great walks to take in the mountains and by the nearby cherry fields.  Perfect!  I try to avoid shopping too much in Spain since I want to use my paychecks to travel, and I wanted a break from the Spanish late night schedule.  I don’t know how the Spaniards manage to have dinner at around 10 and then get up early the next morning for work, I find it a little exhausting!  We arrived at their home, a beautiful old farmhouse surrounded by cherry fields, and had lunch in their garden. After lunch, we hiked in the nearby hills.  The views were amazing!  We ended up coming to a little pond, which not only was quite picturesque but also was of religious importance.  From 1309-1376 the Popes resided in Avignon, France instead of in Rome.  The water source of this pond was the source of drinking water for the French Popes.  I tried some of the water, it was deliciously refreshing and just in time for Easter!  After our nice walk we had a delicious dinner complete with wonderful French wine and sat in front of the fire.  It was the perfect end to my first day in Provence.

The view from our walk

Drinking the Pope water

The next morning I woke up to the wonderful smell of coffee.  I went downstairs and was treated to a homemade café au lait (unlike in Switzerland, I got café with my lait this time) and homemade granola with fruit and yogurt.  I should probably mention that they are pretty gourmet cooks and everything I ate that week was delicious!  I also got a few mini cooking lessons, it was perfect for me!  After breakfast I pored over their beautiful cookbooks while they caught up with some emails. Then Jennifer and I went for walk along the country roads along the cherry fields in bloom and I saw some adorable farmhouses, all complete with shutters most of which were painted my absolute favorite shade of blue.  After lunch, we drove up Mount Ventoux.  The road on Mont Ventoux is part of the tour de France most years and as we drove along we saw some serious bike riders zipping along.  When we got to the ski resorts closer to the top we got out of the car and walked along.  The views were amazing, apparently on a really clear day you can see all the way to the French Alps, we had a cloudier day so we couldn’t see that far.  We still had great views and I was even able to see a few mountain goats from quite a distance.  After our hike we drove to the nearby bout du monde, which means the end of the world.  It’s the end of the valley in the area, and it was pretty neat to see.  After all of our hiking we had yet another delicious meal which we enjoyed in front of the fire.

One of the precious homes

View from Mount Ventoux

Market in Vaison La Romaine

On Tuesday, after another satisfying breakfast we drove to nearby Vaison La Romaine.  The city has many old Roman ruins (another Roman ruin site I can check off) as well as a market every Tuesday.  The market was bustling, there were fruits and vegetables, there were kitchen accessories, there was pottery, there were fabrics and flowers and ribbon. Oh my.  I bought a set of patterned napkins for my eventual home, and I’m really excited to use them!  We also stopped at the cheese shop they go to in Vaison La Romaine, which in the past few years was recognized as the best cheese shop in France, and I can attest that it was some of the best cheese I have ever had!  Later in the afternoon Jennifer and I went for walk near the bout du monde at the Roman quarry which was used to build the city in Vaison in the time of the Romans.  It’s amazing to think that they hauled those stones a good 25 miles.  That night for dinner I had my first ever lamb, and I loved it!  I had always said in the past I couldn’t eat any meat that had been a cute animal so lambs, rabbits and duck were out (sorry chicken, pigs and cows).  Well, Wednesday night we had duck for dinner and it was also delicious so I think I’ll have to lose that mantra.   My last day was very relaxing.  I read through some more cookbooks and we went for a walk through the little village of Sante Marguerite.  It was the perfect way to end my relaxing vacation and it gave me enough energy to last through the next miserable 24 hours of travelling.  More on that later…

View from the Quarry

Village of Sante Marguerite

Strike 3!

You might remember that my first day in Laxe half of the teachers (and students) were not present because of a teacher strike.  The students have gone on strike on a few occasions as well, which still seems quite strange to me, I don’t think I will ever truly get used to the idea students can strike.  In the newspaper 2 weeks ago they had an article about an upcoming strike, no not the general strike in Spain, but a different kind of strike in France.  In France, the parents were having their children go on a homework strike.  Parents believed that there was too much homework being given out in the primary school, but their main argument was that homework was leading to student inequality because some students had parents who could help them and some students didn’t.  This part of their argument completely baffled me.  First of all, students should be doing their homework on their own and it shouldn’t be so dependent on the help of a parent.  Second of all, this was in the primary school, we’re not talking about high school calculus or a literature class.  It seemed like such an awful example of reducing everyone to the lowest common denominator.  Homework is an important way for students to reinforce and actually remember what they learned in class; by eliminating homework parents are reducing their child’s potential for future success.  I thought parents hope for their child to have a better life than they had and if a parent can’t do basic math, they would want their child to have that skill.  I guess I was wrong.  During one of my breaks the teachers were talking about this strike and how crazy it is.  They said it’s just another aspect of how parents do everything for kids.  The math teacher complained that one student asked to call his mother because she forgot to pack his homework in his backpack for him. He called her and she brought the homework to school for him.  I told the teachers about how Daniel rollerbladed to school one day in fifth grade and forgot his shoes. He had to call mom from the principal’s office and ask her to bring them to school for him but he had to help mom in the garden for the next week to repay her.  They laughed a lot at the story, sorry Daniel. 

Protesters in A Coruña

Thursday, March 29th was the general strike in Spain.  The huelga general, or in Galician, folga xeral.  All across the country, people went on strike to protest the cuts the government is making.  Not everyone went on strike though.  At my school only half of the teachers were planning to strike, and I was planning on going to school with the teachers who were still going.  They ended up telling me not to bother coming in since there would only be about three students in each class.  I didn’t mind sleeping in since we had just had daylight savings the past week and I was super tired.  One of my friends in A Coruna was going to the protests with a teacher from her school and she asked if I wanted to join, but I decided not to go.  Since I’m here as a guest of the government and they pay me on time each month, and I’m leaving in May, I have no reason to complain or protest.  My friend said essentially it was everyone from the opposing political party who was protesting, but that overall what she saw was very peaceful.  There were some pictures online on the website for the Galician newspaper which showed smoke bombs being thrown into cafes near the protests that had decided to stay open; or open businesses in the shopping center near my house being forced to close.  But it was nowhere near as chaotic as in Madrid where public transport was essentially shut down, and I’m very happy I leave tonight for France instead of a few days ago.  In Barcelona the police became a little violent; this is not much of a surprise since the police in Barcelona were the ones who responded to protesters with force last summer.  Happily the strike is over and hopefully there won’t be any more strikes before I leave in two months.   I had a lovely day off, I went to the gym and then enjoyed the beach, which was surprisingly crowded.  After the protests ended around two o'clock I guess everyone decided to hit the beach.

Pues Eso

My absolute least favorite phrase to hear in my English classes is “Pues eso.”  Essentially it means “ok, that.”  Typically the students use it when they ask me how to say something in English, and instead of repeating it they say “ok, that.”  For example (this would all take place in Spanish) “Teacher, how do you say sweeping the floor?” “Sweeping… the… floor.” “Pues, eso.”  I try to say it very slowly and emphasize all of the sounds sometimes writing it on the board, all they need to do is repeat it.  Yet, that seems to be too difficult sometimes.  After a morning of hearing nothing but “Pues, eso” in the secondary school, I went to the primary school and poor Antia made the decision to respond “Pues, eso” instead of trying to repeat the sentence.  It was like nails on a chalkboard.  Since the students in 6^th grade are still willing to listen to the teacher and try to make changes you tell them to I decided to nix this nasty little habit.  I told Antia and the class that I never wanted to hear that phrase ever again, it’s not in English and it’s not a real answer, so never again do I want to hear it in the class.  I still hear it every week.  Now every class the 6^th graders greet me with “Hello Emily, pues eso.”  But, no longer do they use it as an answer to an actual question which makes me so happy!

Switerland continued

After promising and promising that I would update my blog, I am finally back!  The rest of my trip to Switzerland was amazing!  On Saturday morning, Stefan and Loic showed me an amazing bakery that they frequent and we picked up croissants and pain au chocolat for breakfast.  These were the most amazing pastries I have had.  My friend Fiona had told me that the croissants I had been quite fond of in our A Coruna bakery shouldn’t even be called croissants, I can see now what she meant.  Loic helped me with my French pronunciation and told me that I finally had mastered the word croissant.  I am clearly mastering the language quite rapidly; at this rate by the time I go to Paris in June I may be able to produce an entire sentence!    After a breakfast which was quite satisfactory, Stefan, Chloe, Winston and I drove up into the mountains to a ski resort to go tubing.  I still have not gotten over my traumatic 4^th grade skiing misadventures in which I managed to knock over my entire beginner’s class in a domino effect, partially because several years after the fact a girl from the class brought it up.   I was very excited I was still able to enjoy the snow and the beautiful views without having to suffer any more skiing humiliation.  After a beautiful afternoon enjoying the Alps, we returned to Paudex and I went to dinner at a fondue restaurant with the adults.  The fondue was delicious and a perfect ending to a day spent outside in the cold. 

On Sunday, we drove to France for a family baptism.  The drive there was really neat.  We drove along with the lake on one side and the Alps on the other.  We even drove through the city of Evian, yes, THAT Evian, source of the bottled water.  The baptism was very interesting, although since I am not Catholic nor can I speak French, I really didn’t understand much.  But, their family was very nice and welcoming so it was a great experience.  And the food afterwards was quite good as well.  When we returned to Switzerland I had more of an opportunity to speak with Stefan’s father, their bon papa.  He and I watched the French news together which he explained a little in English.  He was very interesting to talk to as he worked as an environmental scientist and he has lived in many different rainforests across the world.  He even had brought some of his rock collection to show the kids and I was able to see them as well.  He had a moon rock, as well as part of a meteorite.  I just wish that I had been able to speak French so that I could have talked with him more. 

Lutry

More of Lutry

On Monday, I walked to the neighboring town of Lutry (home of the amazing bakery I had been to on Saturday) and just enjoyed walking outside.  I was able to walk along the lake to get there which was quite enjoyable.  The lake was quite peaceful, with the exception of one speedboat going along, which with a second look I realized was pulling a water skier.  Well, I guess if the lake isn’t frozen over why not?  In the afternoon I took the train from Paudex to the Chateau de Chillon which was a half hour away.  It was a former defense castle on Lake Geneva.  I learned on the tour that it had held the famed prisoner Bonivard and that Lord Byron had visited the Chateau for inspiration when writing about Bonivard.  I had never heard of Bonivard nor am I a big Lord Byron fan, but I still very much enjoyed the Chateau.  The views from the castle were breathtaking and the architecture was very interesting as well.

Chateau de Chillon

 On Tuesday I had time for one more activity before my flight.  I went to the Foundation L’Hermitage which is an art museum that is home to an impressionist exposition.  They have a few Degas ballerina works and several impressionist paintings of Lake Geneva as well as other beautiful paintings.  The impressionists are my absolute favorite painters so I was very happy I was able to see the museum.  The trip to Switzerland was just what I needed, and although I sometimes miss home I remembered that if I wasn’t living in Spain, I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to experience everything I did in Switzerland.

A visit to beautiful Lake Geneva

I have four day weekends every week but this past week I also had off Tuesday and Wednesday because of Carnaval so I took advantage of the longer break to do some travelling.  Family friends of ours (the Toutains) who I babysat for for years, just moved to Switzerland last summer and I was lucky enough to visit them on scenic Lake Geneva.  I arrived on Thursday night and was fortunate that they were gracious enough to have me until Tuesday.  On Friday, I explored a little on my own.  I took the bus from their little village of Paudex to the center of Lausanne, about 10 minutes away.  Lausanne is a very manageable little city that is beautiful!

I arrived into the city a little after 10 am armed with a map and a guidebook.  After wandering around aimlessly for a little just taking in the town and the scenery, I decided to see the sights.  I first decided to head over to the Cathedral since there were other interesting destinations on the map near the Cathedral.  The nice thing about Europe and the cathedrals is when you have a cathedral as a reference point, it’s typically pretty to see it from a distance.  So I made my way up the (fairly steep) hill to the Cathedral and enjoyed the breathtaking views of Lake Geneva and the Alps. 

Right next to the Cathedral was the Historical Museum of Lausanne which didn’t open until 11am.  As it was only 10:30 I decided to explore nearby and see what else I could find.  I almost didn’t go into the Cathedral because in Europe, after a while and many Church and Cathedral tours later, they start to lose their appeal.  I’m glad I did though because although the interior architecture wasn’t spectacular, the stained glass windows had been redone in the 1800’s and were beautiful. 

I also found the Chateau St. Marie, which unfortunately is an administrative building for the city and is not open for visits, but the exterior was still lovely.  I finally made my way back to the Historical Museum and went inside to learn all about the city.  It was very interesting since I really had never studied much about Switzerland before so this was quite informational.  All of the displays, however, were in French, which I do not speak.  After the first few displays I found brochures for the displays in English, but for the first few displays I was able to deduce the general idea since French is a romance language very similar to Spanish.  I was quite pleased with myself and how well I thought I could understand French, but I was promptly brought back to earth when I stopped at a little café for a bite to eat. I had a petite sandwich with brie, tomato, lettuce and mustard which was delish!  However, I hit a bit of a snafu when I ordered something to drink.  I was looking at the hot beverages when I saw lait.  I thought of café au lait and I knew that I liked that, and it was cheap.  Unfortunately, café would be a key word in that order, so I was initially surprised and then felt like a complete idiot when they brought me a cup of just warm milk.  Oh well.  In the café I consulted my guidebook for other interesting sites to visit and set out to wander the streets some more.  I happened to pass by a plaza with a cool clock right on the hour as all of the pieces were moving, what luck!   After feeling I had seen all there was to see in the center of Lausanne, I decided to make my way to some of the destinations more on the fringe of the city. 

Lausanne is considered the Olympic Capital, or Capitale Olympique as it is home to the International Olympic Committee’s headquarters and the Olympic Museum.  Unfortunately the Museum is closed for all of 2012 for renovation but the park surrounding the museum was open, so I was able to explore.  There were a ton of interesting sculptures that had been given to the IOC by other countries’ Olympic Committees, and there was the container holding the Olympic Flame.  Unfortunately I missed the display at noon with the Olympic anthem, but such is life.

  I finally made my way back to Paudex and the two boys took me to see the lake at sunset, it was a great first day in Switzerland! 

Roses are red...

Everyone knows the rhyme:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
And so are you

With my elementary school students this week, we made Valentine's Day cards and they wrote their own variations of the poem.  It was to practice very basic vocabulary and sentence structure, but some of my students ended up being quite creative.

My personal favorites were from two boys in 6th grade.  The first was:
For my mum


My new jacket is beautiful
Barcelona is good
Machines are hardworking
And so are you


My second favorite was a poem one of the boys made for his friend who was a Barcelona fan, and this student was a fan of Madrid.

Madrid is pretty
And flowers are too
Barcelona is ugly
And so are you


The third graders had the easiest time writing the poems because the older students kept trying to make it too complicated.  One student wanted to know how to say "corazon ardiente" which is passionate heart.  Others wanted to know how to say "tus ojos son el color del mar" which translates to "your eyes are the blue of the sea." But I think the lesson went over well since they were all very excited to give their valentines to their parents or their friends.

Super Bowl Sunday!

Luckily since I don’t work on Mondays I can stay up and watch the Super Bowl online.  Unfortunately, the Steelers aren’t playing this year, but I think I almost love cheering against the Patriots as much as I love cheering for the Steelers.  Fingers crossed the Giants win again!  In honor of the Super Bowl, I did an American Football presentation with some of my English classes last week, and it went over really well!  The first thing I did was to show the differences between American football and rugby since when most of my students previously asked about American football their question was “It’s the same thing as rugby, right?” It most certainly is not.  I explained that the basic objective and basic rules of the game and of course I included some clips to illustrate the concepts.  I had the Giants winning touchdown against the Patriots in their last Super Bowl as well as James Harrison’s 100 yard touchdown in Super Bowl 43.  Obviously the two most important things for them to learn about American football are that the Steelers dominate and that the Patriots are overrated.

One class had just finished working on the comparative so each student had to say a sentence comparing American football with either rugby or Spanish football.  Some students used “I like Spanish football more because it is …”  But there were some students who said “I like American football more than Spanish football because it is …”  Typically that sentence was finished with “more aggressive” but I was so excited that I had some American football converts.  I felt like I saved some lives that day.  I have to say though, I think my favorite moment was when one of the girls in the class used the sentence “I like Spanish football more than American football because the Spanish football players are more attractive.”  Considering that most of my clips included Ben Roethlisberger instead of the undeniably attractive Tom Brady, there was no arguing with her logic.

Big Ben

"No tienes abuela"

I learned a few new phrases recently.  The first was courtesy of the bilingual art teacher.  It happened while we were doing an exercise applying the principles of tangents of circles (and I was realizing just how long it had been since I had to think of the principles of tangents).  One of my students does very well in this class and is always one of the first to finish the geometry exercises.  This particular day, other students were asking him for help on the problems and he started to brag(in galician, of course)  "Look how clever I am, everyone needs my help, I am the smartest in the class, etc"  until finally the teacher said to him "Hombre, no tienes abuela."  Roughly that translates to "Geez buddy, you have no grandmother."  The idea is, you would only need to praise yourself if you don't have a grandmother. Obviously it's a well known fact that most grandmothers are a constant source of admiration of their grandchildren.  I have to say, I really like this saying.

Another saying I learned is a French one, courtesy of Fiona.  Of course I learned it in Spanish and not it's original French, but I don't think it loses much in translation.  The saying is "Hablas frances como una vaca espanola" or to translate "You speak French like a Spanish cow."  She thinks it originates from the time of Franco when many Spaniards emigrated to France looking for jobs, and were not exactly received with open arms.  Although my Spanish has definitely improved, I still struggle sometimes with my verb tenses, and now I've started to forget English words.  Recently I tried to tell someone I liked the natureness of an area but not the city itself.  I think at this point, I speak Spanish like an American cow and English like a Spanish cow.  Soy una vaca sin casa. Translation: I'm a cow without a home.

Day trip to France!

Back to my Christmas travels! In Germany, they also celebrate Boxing Day on the 26^th.  Since just about everything in Germany would be closed on the 26^th, we got up early and drove to Strasbourg, France with friends of Uncle Dave and Aunt Cindy.  As we drove along the autobahn and crossed the border we passed an abandoned customs checkpoint.  It seemed strange that we had just crossed a country’s border the same way we cross a state border in the US.  The former checkpoint buildings were starting to fall apart and looked rather depressing, so if the EU ends they are going to have to spend a lot of money updating these checkpoints.

Canals in Strasbourg

Strasbourg is a really cool city.  There are canals running through the city and the buildings are all beautiful!  It’s called the Venice of Northern Europe, and we even saw some boats going along the canals.  We watched one of the boats go through the locks which was pretty neat to see.

Strasbourg Cathedral

Astronomical clock

We also saw the Strasbourg Cathedral which was awe-inspiring!  The Cathedral was started at the beginning of the 13^th century and was completed in 1439.  One of the most unique aspects is the Astronomical clock which was added in 1843. Also interesting was the plaque dedicated to the American troops from WWII.  Because Strasbourg is in northern France, it was one of the first areas to fall under German occupation.

WWII Plaque

The majority of the Christmas markets have their last day the 23^rd of December, but the Christmas markets in Strasbourg last until December 31^st.  And it is Christmas market central, walking through the city we encountered small Christmas markets, large Christmas markets and medium sized Christmas markets.  It was like the Goldilocks and the three bears of Christmas markets with the variety we saw!  A perk of the French Christmas markets was that since French is a romance language like Spanish, I could at least deduce the majority of the signs, whereas in Germany I had no idea!  Unfortunately, although I knew very basic elementary French, when I went to speak to a merchant what came out of my mouth was Spanish.  A typical exchange:

Merchant: Deux euros, sil vous plait.

Me: Dos euros. Gracias. (What I thought in my head was deux euros, merci)

Oh well. C’est la vie.

Christmas Market outside the Cathedral

I tried some delicious French fair food; I had a baguette with goat cheese and tomato, hot apple cider and a beignet topped with chocolate.  Needless to say I am very much looking forward to my next trip to France to try some more dishes.  I have to admit, I think the French have pretty good reason to think their food is the best in the world.

I'm trying to do a better job of keeping this updated, so thanks for taking the time to read it!

First day back tomorrow!

I still have more to say about Germany, which I will come back to later, but tomorrow is my first day back after vacation.  I have to work three whole days this week, life is so tough here.  Tuesday is my busiest day so Mondays I have to set aside a large chunk of time to plan out my lessons.  On Tuesdays I teach two English classes in the primary school, two in the secondary school, three private lessons and then finally a bilingual art class so once my day starts it is go, go, go.  Today I went to a cafe near my apartment so I could plan my lessons without my computer to distract me.  As I was planning my lessons, the strangest thing happened, I actually found myself looking forward to seeing my students again, even the ones who drive me crazy.  I feel very prepared for my classes so hopefully tomorrow's lessons will go well.  Each day it's a surprise how my lessons will go over.  I was not an education major in college and I have no teaching experience so I have been figuring everything as I go along.  Some lessons have been really successful, some have felt like utter failures, so hopefully 2012 will start off on a positive note.  Wish me luck!

Trier

When I first arrived in Germany, we drove to Trier to check out a Christmas market and see the sights.  Trier is awesome because it is the oldest city in Germany and was a capital in the Roman Empire.  There is still some of the original city gate, which is called the Porta Nigra, and is the largest preserved city gate north of the Alps.  The Porta Nigra is even a World Heritage site.  It was awesome to see, and we were even able to go inside.  

I’ve discovered Europeans are slightly more lax when it comes to safety regulations at historical monuments.  In my area of Spain there are also many preserved Roman ruins, and I’ve started to wonder what the Roman would think if they could see the ruins today.  Would they think “Why on Earth has no one repaired the Coliseum, it’s in such disrepair.”  Or would they wonder why we haven’t knocked the ruins down yet, since they aren’t being used for their intended purposes.  I guess if any ancient Romans could see the world today, they would have a lot more pressing questions.  Anyways, it was still really interesting to see the remaining stonework inside the Porta Nigra.

While exploring Trier, I went to my first Christmas market.  It was so fun and I had AMAZING food!  First we split potato pancakes with applesauce to dip them in, and then I also had a bratwurst with mustard and gluhwein.  For those of you who don’t know, gluhwein is hot mulled wine.  In addition to the food it was really neat to see the other booths.  There were a lot of artisan Christmas decorations, as well as cooking utensils, polish pottery, handmade jewelry; really there was a bit of everything.

We also saw the Basilica of Constantine, which is also a World Heritage Site.  It was built by Constantine at the beginning of the 4^th century, and is still used as a church today.  In the 17^th century an archbishop constructed his palace right next to the basilica, and the palace is still there.  It is a little strange to see this impressive basilica and then turn the corner and see the ornate pink palace connected to it.

Christmas in Germany

Finally I’m getting around to updating everyone on my adventures over Christmas break!  Lucky for me, my Uncle and his family live on an American army base in Germany so I was able to spend the Christmas holidays with them.  Every day we explored a different place, and I’m already looking forward to going back for Erin’s graduation in June.  It will be nice to see Germany when there’s sun.   It was so nice to spend Christmas with family.  We went to Church on the base for Christmas Eve service.  Afterwards we went home, enjoyed gluwhein and some delicious treats, and then opened Christmas presents.  On Christmas Day we had a delicious Christmas dinner with friends of Aunt Cindy and Uncle Dave and then watched “A Christmas Story.”  Everyone enjoyed when I told them about our family’s Christmas tradition for the past two years, where we go out for Chinese on Christmas Eve.  The story is particularly entertaining right after watching “A Christmas Story.”

It was very nice to spend Christmas in Germany near the army base, because I got the best of both worlds.  I got to try all sorts of cool things about German culture, and on the army base they sell all things American.  Which means peanut butter.  Oh how I have missed peanut butter.  My mom tried to include it in a package she sent me, but unfortunately the package was held up in Spanish customs and since I was never able to resolve the issue, it should be en route back to the US.  At Uncle Dave and Aunt Cindy’s I think I ate my weight in peanut butter fudge, and started every morning with a bowl of peanut butter captain crunch.  They even bought me a jar of peanut butter to bring back in my suitcase to Spain.  Unfortunately since I had no checked baggage, I had to bring it in my carry-on.  And as it is a cream, it violates the liquid rules for carry-on luggage, so it was confiscated. Foiled again.  But overall, it was a great visit.  More updates to come!