New Year's Resolutions

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my trip to Italy; posts and pictures are coming soon.

I'm not the kind of person who makes new year's resolutions, in fact I usually scoff at them as overreaching and unrealistic.  But.  Since I'm living the dream in France this year, and I've been kind of lazy during the first half of my time here, I decided to spend a few minutes thinking about what I've accomplished so far and what I hope to accomplish during the remaining four months here.  So today, December 31st, 2010, is room-cleaning and thinking-about-goals day:

My goals are hanging next to my bed just in case I start to forget about them...

Happy New Year everyone!

Rome and Venice

I somehow lost all of my photos from the last 3 days in Rome, so words will have to suffice.  I flew out of Toulouse on Saturday morning (free from classes at last!) and finally got into the city from the airport about 2pm.  I checked into my hostel and wandered around the neighborhood for the next few hours, enjoying a pizza and all the terrific (free) views I could get of the coliseum and forum.  Since Rome is even further east than Tarbes, it got dark around 4:30 so I started heading back to the hostel kind of early to enjoy a free pasta dinner that they prepare there twice a week.  After that I just hung around the hostel getting to know some of the other guests.  I was super excited to get up early the next morning to go to the airport and meet my parents and sister, so I was extremely disappointed, not to mention confused from being totally asleep, when my mom called at 2am to tell me that they weren’t able to board their flight to Amsterdam because of some problems you’ve probably already heard about, involving Europeans not knowing what to do with snow, and therefore wouldn’t be arriving in Rome the next morning.

I decided to make the most of my extra day alone in Rome, so I still got up relatively early to tag along with a Canadian girl from my hostel to see a 2-mile-long market.  We took an impressively crowded bus where we both had to stare down some creepy pocket-gropers, and finally burst out of the bus at the market to join the crowd.  It was mostly crappy clothes, but it was still cool to see the longest market in Rome.  At the end, we crossed the river to start looking for a metro stop and stumbled upon the Rome farmer’s market and organic farm.  We walked through the market, didn’t buy anything, but got to sample tons of delicious cheese, salami, cookies, and olive oil, then we were finally on our way.  The Canadian, Heather, had to get back to the hostel to collect her things and head off to the train station, but the other guy with us, Sam, said he was heading over to the Vatican to see the pope speak at noon, and I was like “why not?!” so we went and saw the pope.  I don’t understand German, Italian, or Latin, the 3 languages he spoke in, but it was still cool to see him, along with about half of Rome, all crowded into Saint Peter’s square. 

We went back to the hostel so I could skype with my parents about their unfortunate situation, they told me they would probably be getting on a plane that night and arriving in Rome the following night really late.  Then Sam and I collected some of the other guys from the hostel and we headed out again to have a cappuccino and walk around to see more of the sights, including a really cool park across the street from the coliseum that has the ruins of a roman bath.  Then we started touring churches, of which I don’t want to forget the names:
-Santa Maria Maggiore: very large and impressive, with (allegedly) the remains of the holy manger that Jesus was born in, inside a gold and silver urn under the altar
-Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli: near the Piazza della Repubblica, this church had a lot of astronomical/astrological symbolism, including a really cool floor mosaic of all the different zodiac signs and an incredible stained glass dome right above the entrance with stars in different colors of glass.th
-San Pietro in Vincoli: has the chains that bound Saint Peter under the altar.  There’s some crazy story about a miracle where one church had them, then they were stolen and miraculously reappeared later.  Hmm…

After seeing those churches and taking pictures in front of various monuments which have since been eaten by my computer, we headed back towards the hostel, stopping at a little grocery store on the way to get pasta and wine for dinner.  We cooked and ate together at the hostel, then went to a medieval-themed bar after dinner to have a beer. 

Monday, I slept in then headed out with two boys from the hostel to see Trastevere, a cute neighborhood near the river.  We had awesome slices of pizza, then wandered around a bit, heading north towards the Vatican.  It was almost dark by the time we got there and starting to rain a bit, but there was no line so we went into Saint Peter’s basilica.  I didn’t even bother taking pictures; we just walked around in awe of the hugeness and importance of everything.  Afterwards we made our way back to the metro, and I left them to do more sightseeing while I headed back to the hostel to book a hotel for that night for my parents, who had finally made it to Amsterdam and were waiting to fly to Rome.  I spent the evening hanging out with really cool people at the hostel, making really good pasta, and drinking pretty good wine.  Then around midnight, I finally got the call from my sister at their hotel saying they were there!!!! And it was time for me to go and meet up with them!!!! Finally!!!!!  I practically skipped down the stairs with my backpack and suitcase, power walked over to the hotel, and we all had a giddy reunion and went to bed.

Tuesday morning, we packed up and got on a train from Rome to Venice, where we arrived around 4 in the afternoon.  We’ve spent the last 3 days walking around and getting lost in the city, trying to find alternate routes to avoid the flooded streets (it’s raining a lot. And the canals are in the “acqua alta” or “high water” phase), eating a lot of good food, and generally just enjoying beautiful Venice and each other’s company.  Yesterday we went to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, which is a bunch of really great modern art that she collected, displayed in her former home in Venice, on the grand canal.  Today’s plans are similar: try to see some important things, wander around and inevitably get lost.  Florence tomorrow.

2nd night in Venice--it's AWESOME!

I spent 2 nights in Rome waiting for my family to get there; we're finally together so I won't write a real update--more on Rome and Venice later!

"We're, like, professional eaters" -Sam

One of my favorite French words: bouffer. It basically means "to stuff one's face", i.e. "to eat a lot".  Sam and I decided that Wednesday (our day off) has now become bouffe-ing day, the one day of the week where we eat absolutely as much as we want and it doesn't matter.  It would be embarrassing to list all the things we ate yesterday, so let it suffice to say that we went grocery shopping hungry.  And that was only lunch.

Last week I found out yet another reason why I am totally superfluous in my job.  I was discussing with one of the English teachers what she's doing with her students when they're not with me, and it turns out she has to do something completely unrelated to their lessons, because when I take half of the class, as I usually do, it messes up their schedule so they can't progress with their normal lessons because the half with me would be behind.  So she has to come up with her own dumb filler activities, probably quite similar to the ones they're doing with me.  So my presence is actually more of a burden than a help.  I really hope the French government never finds out that they are actually paying us to be the opposite of helpful and constructive in language classes, I feel like I'm cheating the system...

On a side note, I've already listened to "All I Want for Christmas is You" four times today and I'm still not sick of it... and two more classes in the afternoon equals another four listens... which just proves that this is the best Christmas song ever and you can never get sick of it.

the luxe life

I went here yesterday.  It was the shit.

Birgit suggested we go to Bagnères-de-Bigorre, a town near Tarbes, which is a popular tourist place because of its hot springs and its proximity to ski resorts.  We went to check out the thermal baths (see the link above), and Sam and some French guys we know joined us there.  We paid 16 euros, changed into our bathing suits, and spent the next 2 hours splashing around in hot pools, sweating in steam rooms, and sitting in hot tubs on the roof, looking at the mountains.

Sorry for bragging, i just like to have another thing to throw in people's faces when they say Tarbes is boring...

(will someone in america please verify that this video works in america?)

My students are loving the Mariah Carey-based Chrismas lesson so far.  I'm giving them the lyrics with blank spaces instead of all the "Christmas vocabulary" and they have to fill it in as they listen.  I don't know how this is possible, but most of them have never heard of this song before!!!  Anyway, we're getting along pretty well this week as I've finally given them something fun that they actually find fun (I've thought everything we've done so far was fun, but they have impressively bad attitudes).  I feel like I'm finally figuring out what kinds of things are appropriate for their level; I've done stuff that was way too hard and other stuff that was too easy.  The prepositions worksheet I gave them this week was just right, AND it meant that I can now ask them to find all the prepositions in "All I Want for Christmas is You".

Last night, I went to the university gym to play badminton with some of my new friends.  It was awesome! I played kind of crappily but whatever! I had to play badminton and speak French at the same time!  Oh yeah, so through all our international friends we've finally found some French students who are in the international club, so we can finally speak real french with real french people.  and they have cars and can drive us around!  SO many good things!

blogging from my bed

I now (finally!) have internet in my room, via a super long ethernet cable lent to me by one of the friendly employees who live here, so I will be blogging more often than ever!  From my bed!!

quelle surprise, my room is le bordel a.k.a., a mess

Today was another one of the days where the secondes inexplicably don't have class, so 2 out of my 3 classes were cancelled, and I'm now free until 2pm on Thursday.  The grand plan for tomorrow: lay in bed all day with Sam watching movies and drinking hot chocolate.

In spite of all my free time and sleeping in, today was semi-productive: I filled out and e-mailed the last forms I need to apply to law school.  So really all that remains now is the paying part... couldn't I just give them my soul instead of $600?

Big Fun Day in Toulouse, weekend in Tarbes

These are from a few weeks ago, but just to show how lovely Toulouse is

As much as I love Tarbes, it's definitely nice to get out once in a while and be in a "real" city.  Although Toulouse is the fourth-largest city in France (after Paris, Lyon, and Marseille), its population is roughly the same as Detroit, and the city area is much smaller.  You can pretty much walk from one end to the other in an hour or hour and a half.  Anyway, what I love the most about it is how old it is.  There are some fabulous roman churches in the city (which was an important city in the Roman empire) that were built around 1000 b.c., one of them housing the remains of Saint Thomas of Aquinas!

Hadley and Saint Thomas of Aquinas

Since I only work from 8-9 in the morning on Friday (still slightly less than ideal) Sam, Hadley and I hopped on the train at 10:30 to spend the day in Toulouse.  Since I've already been there so often, there isn't that much of the city I haven't seen yet, but it's so pretty it's just a lovely place to be.  I had just spent a lovely day there with my friend Melina when she came to visit me a couple weeks ago, so Friday we really didn't need to do anything besides eat and shop and sit in lovely cafés.  We were lucky enough to be there while the Christmas Market was open, so the first thing we did when we got into the city was head to the market to see what we could find for lunch.  We got tartiflette, which is a mix of cheese, potatoes, and ham, and it's YUMMY!  We washed it down with some vin chaud, or warm spiced wine, then we all had some shopping to do for the gala on Saturday.  We spent the rest of the day wandering around doing a little shopping and showing Hadley some of the sights, and had coffee and dessert at one of the many adorable cafés in Toulouse.  When we got back to Tarbes at 11 we were all exhausted and went straight home to bed to rest up for Saturday...

Sam, Sam, and Hadley at the Christmas Market

Christmas lights at the Capitole

Saturday was the annual gala of the university in Tarbes, and we were invited by some of the international students we know.  Sam, Charnette, and I got ready at Hadley's apartment, then we went to have a apéro at the home of some students before heading to the gala.  The best part was getting dressed up super classy, and it was also awesome to hang out with French people our age and speak French with them.

classy and international!

Day off in Tarbes

~written Wednesay, December 1, 2010~

So I started out this afternoon by writing a really long rant about how disillusioned I am about my job and the French education system in general, but as I've been complaining about it to my friends all day I decided that no one else really needs to hear (read) that.  Let it suffice to say that I would never put my kids in French public school, and that my job occupies so little of my time here that it really can't get me down.  I actually had some really lovely groups of students this week and we had fun doing Mad Libs together and today I went to a really inefficient meeting about pedagogical methods in primary schools, where my presence literally served no purpose.  Whatever.

I keep forgetting that while I'm not traveling and being fabulous, the point of this blog was to enlighten my readers about day-to-day life in my small French town so I'll just do a "day in the life" entry today to keep everyone updated.  Most of the Tarbes assistants don't work on Wednesdays, so we usually talk about doing really awesome things but end up just hanging around and talking and eating:

This morning, I had to go to that really stupid meeting because I was doing a favor for my friend who was supposed to attend but was out of town.  I had pumpkin soup for lunch (you can find the BEST stuff in French grocery stores!) and then went to (the Spanish assistant) Marta's house to hang out, since Molly was there for the day.  We laid around for a while, then drove out to our friend Birgit's (the German assistant) house in Laloubère, a village just outside of Tarbes.  Laloubère is a really old, charming village, right outside of the comparatively dull and industrial Tarbes, and I had no idea all this time!  I started exclaiming about how adorable it was and how much I love the French countryside (and France in general) and Marta was thoroughly entertained.  We had tea and chatted and Birgit played the guitar for us a little bit, then we all headed back to Tarbes to make dinner at Hadley's, on the way discovering the hugest grocery store I've been in yet and buying a carload of chips.  After gorging ourselves on chips in the car, we arrived at Hadley's and I made soup for us for dinner and we sat around eating and gossiping.  Then Hadley and I went out for a beer at our favorite bar, Le Celtic, which is owned and operated by a man who looks just like Borat but is ten times more awesome.  After two and a half months of steady patronage, Hadley and I finally got our first free beers from Borat yesterday.  How's that for a good day off?

In the last few weeks (since my last blog update), not much has happened but there are a few exciting exceptions:
- I became a real (a.k.a. legal) working resident of France
- I met at least twice as many people as I previously knew in Tarbes: we were invited to an international soirée for all the teaching assistants and international students and the university, put on by the Tarbes Rotary Club.  As you may know, all but one of the assistants in Tarbes are girls, and the university is an engineering school, so they are naturally all boys, so as you can imagine we were all quite excited to meet people our age of the opposed sex.  So I am clearly too busy having an actual social life to blog these days... :P
- My French may have improved; I really have no way of gauging that but on Monday I ran into this French girl I had met a few months ago and as soon as I said "Hi how are you" she said "oh, you speak better!"  I have no idea if she could have known that after so few words but hey, I can't complain.  I do feel more comfortable with French so I guess that's a good thing... I basically understand everything, and when I'm speaking with someone one-on-one I can express myself pretty naturally, it's just when there are groups of many French people talking together that I put all my energy into understanding the whole conversation to the point where I can't really add anything.  Especially when it's in the teacher's lounge and they are talking about students I don't know and the digital workspace, things that I care very little about.
- Hadley and I hosted a kick-ass Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night at her apartment.  We invited all the assistants, several of the international students, and any French people we knew.  She doesn't have an oven big enough for a turkey (or a chicken for that matter), so we bought 2 kilos of duck confit basically deep fried duck legs, mmmmm... and I made a ton of my famous minestrone
- I met a 3-year-old french boy yesterday, the son of our favorite bar owner (who looks like Borat).  He is one of the... one French people I know besides the teachers at my school, so I count him among my friends even though we don't really know him that well... Anyway, his son is adorable and looks exactly like his father, sans moustache.  So that was fun.
- Tarbes has its own Christmas market!  Complete with spiced wine and ice skating!