Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday last week. No turkey and cranberries for me, but we made do with chicken and mashed potatoes.

This weekend I went to Paris with Nichole to take a small break from Le Havre. We stayed with Nichole's quasi-host sister in her apartment in the 11e arrondissement, right by the Bastille, which is, of course, home to the July Column. She was a super gracious and lovely host, and very ready to play tourist with us. Naturally, my first priority of the trip was food. Le Havre is fairly devoid of any and all ethnic food, at least in the neighborhood I live in. Evidently, there are some sushi places hidden around, but I haven't seen any Asian people, so I'm slightly skeptical. Saturday, I made sure to get my falafel in the Marais, and then left the rest of the planning of the afternoon up to Nichole and Giovanna. Other culinary hits of the weekend included Chinese food, pizza, challah bread, and sweet potatoes. Ok, so listed like that, it sounds like I'm just a college student, but doesn't the sheer fact that this food was made in France somehow make it more...gourmet? Eh? On a cultural note, we visited the Sacre Coeur and Pere Lachaise, and walked through a great deal of the city center. I'll never understand people who don't like Paris.

In weather news, it's officially winter here. We're talking below freezing and snowing. Yuck.

Finally, I have to stop and say RIP Leslie Nielsen. Heidi, my roommate, has never seen Airplane! so I'm making her watch that tonight as a way to honor his memory. In retrospect, when she told me that she'd never seen it, I should have said "Surely you must be joking!" instead of "WHAT?!" Ah, well.

Things that have recently happened to me

1) I moved! Freedom from the YMCA tastes sweet! And, it smells less like mildew, which is always a plus in my book. My friend Heidi found us a flat on the top floor of a really adorable old French couple's house (who call us 'eidi and 'annah). There is a garden and we have our own kitchen, and it's just really great. I've been really loving being able to cook in a clean and private space, not to mention the fact that I am now allowed to have wine! To take full advantage of this, my first night I cooked a wine-soaked meal: coq au vin, pears poached in red wine, and Heidi made vin chaud. Yum city.

2) I went to Etretat, which was breathtakingly beautiful. It used to be a fishing village, but I'm pretty sure tourism is the biggest industry now. However, it felt much more real to me than Honfleur did; I could believe that people actually lived in the town. Maybe it was because there was only one postcard shop and only one rack of key chains with names on them. Interestingly, Etretat was made famous by impressionist painters and writers, like Monet and Maupassant. Heidi and I walked around for a while, climbed to the top of the falaises, and had some delicious crepes, to boot. As Heidi put it, it almost made me want to learn about geology. But not quite.

3) I realized how ridiculous so many of my days are. Friday, for example, I spent close to 2 straight hours singing "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." I was out of breath by the time lunch rolled around and quite red in the face. My strategy with these little ones was to use flashcards to teach them the parts of the body and then move on to singing. I quickly learned that this was not going to work. For some reason, any image I showed them prompted them to say "eye." No, Auguste, it's NOT an eye, it's an ARM. No, Céline, not an eye, a NOSE. When flashcards weren't working I thought maybe drawing would help, but I was wrong. "Draw an arm," I would say pointing to the picture and pointing to my own arm. "Do you understand?" Despite their cheerful "oui, 'annah!"s, I looked around to see them totally confused. "I think she want's us to draw an eye," I heard them saying to one another. "Oh, ok, yeah, that makes sense." One of the kids was deep into a cityscape that centered around an eye before I stopped them and told them to put everything away. One girl stood up to collect all the markers, prompting others to cry out against the grave injustice that had just been committed. "It's not her turn to collect the markers! It's his! It's his!" The class was descending into chaos, as some of them had started standing up to pull on my shirt in an effort to beg me to do something about the marker duty-thief. "I don't care!" I responded, "We're going to sing, and it's going to be FUN!"

In my next class of first-graders, I didn't even take anything out of my bag; I went straight for the song...and I got into it. When I jumped around, they did too, and believe it or not, they were able to learn the song. Well, the rhythm, at least. When their teacher came back, she joked that I was teaching gym class. Little does she know...

Next week, it's going to be all Hand Turkeys, all the time. Whether they like it or not. I was hoping I could combine my lessons on colors and parts of the body for this little project, but I'm less sure now. Only time will tell!

On food...

It certainly wouldn't be profound of me to pontificate about the delicious qualities of French food, but I've seen enough things here that just wouldn't fly in the States to make me want to blog about it. I started thinking about this on Wednesday, when I went with my friend Nichole to the French equivalent of a fondue party. There were about 10 of us who got together for a dinner party at this kid named Maxime's apartment. Upon arriving, we learned that we would be eating raclette, and that's where the adventure began.

Raclette is made with special "raclette machines," which are basically hot plates with little trays in them. Everyone takes a tray, puts a piece of "pungent" cheese in/on it, and then shoves the tray back into its slot. When the cheese is browned and bubbling, you take it and pour it on prosciutto, saucisson, potatoes, etc. I don't think I've ever consumed so much prosciutto in one sitting, but I'd like to try again. Amazingly, the French people ate nearly twice what Nichole and I could hold down. I don't get it! Consider me sold on raclette...

In other food news, I would like to describe what "school lunch" means to these people. No chicken nuggets, no hamburgers, no pizza - instead, we eat steak frites, moussaka, and cassoulet. Also the meal is served family style, and on real plates. To start, there is some kind of salad, and not iceberg with ranch dressing. Last Friday, it was beet salad. It's pretty amazing to watch what comes out of the kitchens there.

Also of note, you can buy a bag on individually wrapped crab legs, just for when you're on the go and can't do without seafood. It comes with a little tub of mayonnaise, too!

Ah, la belle France!

Espana! Home of the all ham diet!

Holy moly, it's been a really long time since I've updated this thing! The most notable event since my last posting was my first vacation. Yup, after working for three weeks, I got 10 days off for Toussaint - All Saints' Day. In total, I get 7.5 weeks off, thanks to the amazing school break calender here. Sorry to all my friends working 12 hour days at home who get only Christmas and New Year's Day! I'll be thinking of you!

I chose to spend this break in Spain, even though my Spanish knowledge is limited to "Si ves algo, di algo," from the subway posters. I flew into Barcelona for a few days of solo sightseeing. Barcelona was beautiful and warm, and the people were very friendly. I hit all the major touristy sites, including the Sagrada Familia, and Parc Guell. My greatest achievement was getting the EU discount at the Picasso Museum by speaking French to the guy at the welcome desk. Holla! The Gaudi architecture was really cool to see (obviously), and I was excited to see the sun and walk around in a t-shirt. I also ate many tapas, of course.

Next I took an overnight bus to Madrid to meet my friend Michael, who graduated with me from Wash U. He graciously agreed to host me for the weekend in his sweet apartment right off of Gran Via. There, I continued my strict regime of binge eating ham products. Delicious. Unlike in Barcelona, where I was alone, I went out to some clubs and "experienced nightlife" in Madrid. On Saturday we decided to celebrate Halloween and went out in costume until 8:30 am. Not too many others were dressed up, and Michael got called out on wearing green and gold. Who knew those didn't go together? The 8:30 am thing was tough for me - I won't lie. It was really fun to get to see friends from Wash U (additional shout out to Miranda for hosting me one night!), and of course, to take a break from my extremely strenuous work schedule.

Getting back to France, I had to go straight to my immigration appointments in Rouen, which involved a LOT of waiting. For some reason, something like 40 of us were scheduled for appointments at the same time and only one doctor was available to see us. What? Inefficiency in France? Quelle choque! Luckily, the doctor couldn't have been sweeter, which made up for the waiting. Also, I forced my friends to play lots of 20 questions with me while waiting, and it turns out that that game is still fun.







Back in Le Havre, back to work!

Ca va quand meme?

Quelle semaine! I don't know where to begin about everything that has happened to me in the past few days. Monday morning I was on the bus on the way to Mont Gaillard, the neighborhood where my schools are, sitting and thinking about what a nice weekend I had, and how I was finally starting to feel a little bit normal. Sun shining, oiseaux chirping, etc. When I turned the corner onto the street where the school is located, however, I saw two young men talking/arguing. When I got closer (probably about 20 feet away), I saw one of the men get on his knees and put his hands in the air. Then I noticed that the other man was holding a gun. I turned right around and walked as quickly and as quietly as I could away. I've never felt so terrified, and I'm still a little shaken up. (If you want to make me feel better, email me about your lives!!! hannah.mullman@gmail.com do ittttt)

My friends here and the inspectrice have been really nice and supportive, even if my contact person's initial response was to ask if I was sure that it wasn't a police officer holding the gun. Thanks.

ANYWAY, the greve continues. Here is an article about the situation courtesy of my mother: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/world/europe/20france.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1

Also, for the record, 1 jar of nutella down, how many more to go?

Day Trippin'

This weekend, I went on not one, but TWO day trips. I know, I know, I'm really outdoing myself out here. Saturday I went to Honfleur with some of the other English assistants. Honfleur is a small and picturesque fishing village about a half hour away from Le Havre. It's very touristy, but as usual, there's a reason for this. Some fun facts about Honfleur: it was the port from which French explorers left to go on and "discover" Quebec City and, drum roll please....the Mississippi River! History! It's happening all around us! Anyway, it was really really beautiful, and very fun to get out of Le Havre and play tourist. Then that night I went over to Nichole's house to make a delicious shrimp and avocado salad, complete with local cider. Yum. After eating we went upstairs and chatted for a while with Nichole's quasi-host sister and her maybe ex-boyfriend/current boyfriend (hard to say) about politics, American culture (aka movies and tv shows), French universities, and Paris. They gave us some Calvados, a local specialty, to try. It's a very strong apple brandy that's called a digestif because you're supposed to drink it in between courses/after a meal to cut through all the grease you just ate. Normand food is very buttery, creamy, and cheese-filled. Taking a few shots of alcohol could only help the heart, n'est-ce pas? It was a very fun and relaxed night.

Today Nichole and I went to Rouen for the Fete du Ventre et de la Gastronomie, aka Festival of the Stomach and Gastronomy. Never would I ever skip an event with such a title. We walked through the crowded streets of the old city (beautiful and charming) and tried samples of foie gras, onion jam, sausage, and cheese. Basically I took any sample I could get. Then we made a picnic lunch of Neufchatel, which is an amazing heart-shaped cheese, a garlic infused salami, baguette, and pear cider. Yum city. Oh, and a nutella crepe, of course.

All in all, a very successful weekend, I think.

La greve, la greve, toujours la greve...

Wouldn't you know it, but all this week there's been a strike here in France. Quelle surprise! That never happens here! Sarcasm! The French are very upset that Sarkozy raised the retirement age up from 60 and have, predictably, decided to strike. Because of this, my first week of real teaching has been a wee bit messed up. My favorite part about European strikes is that they are planned ahead of time and they come with clearly marked start and end times. To me, it doesn't really seem like there's much incentive to compromise if you know that your workers will stop striking tomorrow, but what do I know. Anyway, Tuesday I was supposed to go to Rouen for training, but the greve prevented this from happening, and I had to stay in Le Havre. Interestingly, this means that I have had zero training to date.

Yesterday I found myself caught in the middle of a very rowdy youth demonstration, and I won't lie, it was terrifying. I was walking to catch the bus to get to Mt. Gaillard, the neighborhood where I work, when all of the sudden a crowd of high schoolers chanting Seven Nation Army turned the corner and started marching towards me. It was a little tough to take seriously, given the song and the age of the demonstrators, but then I noticed that they were knocking sings over, throwing barricades into the street, and throwing things everywhere. Eeeek! When I got on the bus, they came up to it, pounded on the windows with sticks, and lay/stood in front of it so that the driver couldn't proceed. For a moment, I thought that it maybe wasn't the safest idea to stay on the bus, but then I remembered that if I wasn't there to teach gym in English, the French kids would have to take gym in French and that didn't sit right with me. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but as someone who was in high school not so long ago, I'm going to weigh in and say that these kids were just trying to miss class. Maybe it was Seven Nation Army, maybe it was the fact that they were all carrying Longchamp bags and holding Blackberries, maybe it was something else, but it seemed to me that they were being unnecessarily destructive.

La vie jacobine!