Baby Monkey: Eurotrip '12 w/ Claire

Hello all! I made it back from the trip in one piece, and have spent the last week sleeping a lot and taking it easy. The thought of giving a blow by blow of everything Claire and I saw and did is exhausting, so I will just say that the trip was amazing and let the pictures do most of the talking. We spent 3 nights in Paris, 4 in Marseille, 3 in Barcelona, 3 in Santander, and 3 in Chefchaouen, a small city in the mountains of Morocco. It was wonderful to see Claire, who is a dear friend from high school now living and working in Boston, and to have such a good chunk of time to hang out, really catch up, and explore new places together. We also met some nice folks along the way, including a couple of cool English girls and an exchange student from South Korea at our lovely hostel in Marseille, and a wonderful English & Greek couple and an awesome solo-traveling retired pediatric nurse from Norway in Morocco. AND, we got to see a bunch of Grinnellians in Santander-- Libby, who came to visit me in November, is doing a Fulbright there for a year, and we were lucky to overlap with Courtney & Anand, a recently married couple doing a Watson fellowship (one year of paid international research!) on international film festivals. We also had breakfast with my friend Felicity and her brother on our way to Morocco. SO, in sum, it was 2.5 weeks of amazing sights, experiences, and people.

Claire in Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, Paris

Versaille! The hall of mirrors.
Marie Antoinette's bed
Versaille's gardens in winter
Sunset in front of Notre Dame de Paris
Musée d'Orsay-- originally a train station built for the World's Fair in 1900. Saw some beautiful Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec...
SUNSHINE in Marseille! Our first day Claire & I sat at a café near our (wonderful!!!!!) hostel sipping pastis, an anise liquor well loved in the South of France
View of the old port from one of the old forts that guard the port of Marseille
Marseille's beautiful cathedral, situated on a hill overlooking the city and the Mediterranean
We took a walk along the calanques (sea cliffs) that are a half hour bus ride from the old port, where our hostel was.
Les calanques and the Mediterranean :)
Chateau d'If, an island fortress only a 20 minute ferry ride from the old port! This is where Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned in his famous novel!
Pretty posh for a prison, no?
Day trip to Aix-en-Provence
BARCELONA from the top of the weirdly hyped up Columbus monument-- the tree lined street is Las Ramblas, and our (really loud stinky terrible) hostel was just off the main drag.
Gaudi's Sagrada Familia-- unlike any building I have ever seen. Everyone should go see it. Columns built to look like tree trunks, ceiling like a forest canopy.

Gaudi's Parc Guell
Side street near our (stupid) hostel
Santander! Libby thought this raft was the actual Kon Tiki, and we were both really excited until Claire knocked on it and it was very hollow and metal sounding... Don't know why the actual Kon Tiki would be in Santander, Spain anyway :)
View from a hillside overlooking Santander-- we had a picnic there with Libby on a beautiful afternoon. Libby gets the prize for best hostess!
The rooftop of our (beautiful, clean, charming, friendly) Riad in Chefchaouen. Everyone should go here, too. (When I win the lotto I'll buy you all plane tickets.) We spent our evenings sitting up here chatting with our lovely neighbors, looking at the stars, and listening to the call to prayer echoing off the mountains that loom over Chaouen.
Powdered paint in the medina (the old part of the city, completely surrounded by walls and in Chaouen's case, painted entirely blue/teal/periwinkle!)
Winding media streets
Fresh oranges... One afternoon I had an avocado orange smoothie... yummmm
Kids on a break from class at a small school about an hour's walk from Chaouen
View from the Riad's rooftop terrace at sunset
Hike to the Bridge of God, an hour cab ride from Chaouen

Snack above the main square of the medina
Kids playing soccer in the main square
Hopefully the photos speak as loud as words. It was a truly amazing trip!

Some news from the home front-- yesterday I had a basketball game with Équipe B, the team of older ladies who play for fun. It was great to see them all because we haven't had a game in a while (and we won!) Unfortunately next weekend might be my last chance to play with them, but they arranged for us all to eat a meal together beforehand, which will be nice. Tabea and I also had my Czech friends over for dinner yesterday-- Lucka and Bara, the two girls I tutor, as well as their respective husband and boyfriend, Lubos and Jakub. They are such nice people, and we had a nice time chatting and eating and drinking wine. I can't believe how little time I have left in Tergnier (1 month!), and it's hard to imagine saying goodbye to all the people who have been so welcoming to me.

It's also sad to think about saying goodbye to the children I've been working with, and the other teachers, who have been wonderful. The other night I was in a bit of a bad mood at the grocery store, stalking around gripping a bag of frozen peas, when I heard a little voice say "Marianne!" I looked up and saw Hugo, a 5 year old boy who I work with at Condren, running toward me with a huge grin on his face. He gave me bisous, and I felt my bad mood fall away immediately. After speaking for a moment with his parents, who say he has been practicing numbers and colors in English at home, I left the store smiling and feeling much better about things. Looking forward to practicing "Head Shoulders Knees & Toes" tomorrow in class. Much love and BISOUS!

Dunkerque Carnevale

This past weekend, I went back to the far north of France to stay with my friend Rachel, so that I could experience a little of the madness that is Carnevale in Dunkerque. Every year in the months surrounding Mardi Gras, there are multiple balls, parades, and parties in Dunkerque and surrounding towns, where thousands of people don feather boas, glitter, parachute pants, full body paint, wigs, fake eyelashes, fur coats, and sequined top hats and take to the streets and dance floor. It was something I was told I must see while here in France, and it certainly was one of the silliest/funnest/weirdest things I've done since I've been here! I went up to Dunkerque on Friday, and on Saturday Rachel and I and a bunch of other assistants working in DK got dolled up and went to a ball. I kid you not, there were 1000 or more people there, all looking like they were dressed by Lady GaGa and then shot by paintball guns, and dancing their hearts out. IT. WAS. SO. FUN!

Here's a stall at the bi-weekly market selling carnevale gear :)
Me, Rachel & her roommate Kayla
A glimpse of the ball.......
I was extremely bummed that I had to leave in the early afternoon on Sunday, because later on there was a massive parade in Dunkerque center, and as I made my way to the train station I saw hundreds of dressed up people making their way to le centre ville. It was quite entertaining to see French people, reserved and dignified as ever, going about their daily business dressed in head to toe clown clothing.

On the bus:
In the train station :)
In a restaurant!! These guys were my favorite, when I passed by the window they were all leaning over their beers deep in what seemed like a very serious conversation. Had to ask for a picture :)


So, if ever you find yourself in Northern France in February/March, make SURE you head to Dunkerque.

In other news, the cold spell passed, but continued for a good couple of weeks-- here are a couple shots of the canal in Tergnier on a particularly chilly afternoon. I run on this canal 2-3 times per week.

And here's a picture from the corner where I spend a lot of my time at home, curled up in a big brown chair watching TV :) Don't know why I took it, but now you can see what I look at a lot of the time when I'm home.
I'll end with the itinerary for my next great adventure which starts TOMORROW (!!!!!!!!)
My good friend Claire Zukin flew to Europe a couple days ago and has spent a couple days in Iceland. Tomorrow afternoon I'll meet her in Paris, and after a few days there we'll head to Marseille, then to Barcelona, then to Santander (also in Spain), then to Chefchaouen, a small town in Morocco! (I can't believe my good fortune. So grateful!)

So à bientôt, and I should have loads of interesting things to write when I get back. <3

"Éllo mise, oite colorizite?"

The past few weeks have been good ones for work. The week after Brita left, I got to participate in two very special school-related activities. That Thursday, I stayed at Condren to eat lunch at la cantine (the cafeteria.) I think that the kids and teachers at Condren are especially sweet and wonderful, and my lunch there definitely reinforced that impression. French schools have a 2 hour break for lunch in the middle of the day, and most children go home to eat with their families. Some whose parents work during lunch, or who live too far away from school to go home midday, stay at school to eat at la cantine. While most cantines allow the kids free play time after the meal, Yolande, who is in charge of la catine at Condren, likes to organize projects and activities for the children when the meal is through. She invited me to eat at la cantine and to perform Little Red Riding Hood en anglais, with marionettes. We had a lovely meal-- pasta with meatballs, pork pâté, and clementines for dessert. The kids seemed to enjoy my rendition of La Petite Capuche Rouge, and then Yolande had them show me what they've been working on so far this year-- a musical/comedy/dance version of Little Red Riding Hood, that they'll perform for their parents when school ends in July! It was pretty adorable; all the kids, from the ages of 2-11, danced and sang and smiled along to various Smurf sing-a-long songs, French classics, and some American oldies. One thing that strikes me about Condren is how all of the children play so nicely with each other, no matter what age. The older kids seem to look out for the littlest ones at recess, and they all join in each others' games. A special place!

The next day, I was a chaperone on a field trip to see the Reims circus with l'école maternelle de Blériot. These were the five kids I had to keep an eye on on the hour bus ride, and during le spectacle :)
It was the first time I've ever been to a real circus, (at least that I can remember,) with acrobats and ballerinas and horses and monkeys and jugglers. The kids seemed to really enjoy it, except for Valentin, the boy in glasses above, who after every act would start putting on his coat and say, "OK, is it time to go now?" We brought bag lunches and ate together in a gym in Reims when the show was over, and sang songs while we were waiting for the bus. I had a nice chat with a particularly sweet boy named Lenny, who is fond of me and likes to strike up conversation by asking me how to say various words in English, and by reminding me that he is the tallest boy in his class (he's 4.)
Unicycling juggler w/ monkey accomplice

I had another treat last week, when we celebrated Chandeleur at Condren with the older kids. Chandeleur falls on February 2 every year-- it's a religious holiday (no idea what exactly is being celebrated) that French people fête by making & eating crêpes! This year Lucille, la Directrice, wanted to have an American Chandeleur, so I brought a recipe for pancakes, which the kids translated. We spent the morning converting cups to mL and teaspoons to grams, and made the pancakes during recess. If it looks like my job is mostly cooking sweet things with my students, it's true.



Later that week at another class at Condren, a boy named Rémi, who is very excited about learning English, came up to me and handed me a slip of paper, saying that he had written out a question "en anglais" for me. The paper read, "Éllo mise, oite colorizite?" It took me a couple seconds to realize that he had written out a question we have been working on for the last few weeks --> "Hello miss, what color is it?" I had to try extremely hard not to laugh.

Otherwise-- it's been cold here for the last 2 weeks! Like, actually cold-- below freezing, with a couple days of light snow. This was the view from our apartment window on first snowy night a couple weeks ago.
This past Saturday Tabea and I visited a nearby town called Noyon, where we met up with a couple of assistants who live there and saw the John Calvin museum (he was born in Noyon! Crazy!) and la cathédrale, obviously. It was a clear, cold day, and a fountain in a park beside the train station was frozen solid.
The John Calvin museum, on the site of his childhood home.
Cathedral pixxxxx




Looking forward to a quiet weekend, and planning many exciting things over the next few weeks, including basketball, karaoke, a cross-dressing carnavale in the far North, and in just 14 days, the beginning of an adventure into Spain and Morocco with my dear friend Claire from high school!

3 Year College Roommates Reunite in Tergnier, Fun had by All

Last weekend my college roommate Brita came to visit for a long weekend from Germany, where her brother lives. It was wonderful to see her-- we did day trips to Saint Quentin, Reims, and Paris, and spent our evenings eating at home and watching "Clueless" "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

It's been unseasonably warm in Tergnier, but the days during Brita's visit were a welcome change-- clear and crisp. The nights were cold, and I just about made us miss our train to Reims one morning to take this *ArTsY* pic of a frosty rose.
Brita and I in Reims, in front of a restaurant called "Beef or Salad?"
Beef or Salad??
For me, the highlight of the visit was our visit to the Mumm Champagne house in Reims. We took a tour where our guide explained the process of making champagne, and we got to taste test some of the bubbly. Champagne is made from different combinations of the juices of three types of grape: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Our guide, a frenchman who seemed pained to have to give a tour in English, explained in a hilariously vague way that the Pinot Noir is the father grape, that gives a wine its "strength," Chardonnay is the mother grape that gives "elegance," and Pinot Meunier is like the child that gives "playfulness". Spoken like a true wine snob! After the grapes are juiced, mixtures of the juices of these 3 grapes are put into giant stainless steel vats, where yeast is added and the fermentation process begins. The reaction of yeast and sugar produces CO2, which during the first fermentation is allowed to escape. What makes champagne special is the second fermentation, which happens inside the sealed bottle-- the once fermented wine is bottled, then more yeast and sugar are added (just the right amount, or the bottles will explode!) and the second fermentation begins. Because the bottles are sealed, the CO2 produced during the fermentation is trapped, and that's where the bubbles come from. Here is our tour guide explaining the process by which the excess yeast sediment is removed from the bottles after the second fermentation-- the bottles are slowly rotated every couple of weeks, the sediment is allowed to collect in the neck, which is then flash frozen. The frozen chunk is removed, more sugar is added, the bottle is recapped, aged for a bit longer, and is then ready to go!
Obviously the tasting was the funnest part. Brita and I took our glasses into a corner in the room, got pleasantly tipsy, and attempted to channel our inner wine snobs. We tried to describe the two champagnes we tasted in 3 words, and came up with stuff like "aloof", "flirtatious", "mysterious", and "blackberry". :)
The day before Brita flew back to Germany, we spent an afternoon in Paris wandering around la Cimitière Père Lachaise, aka "The cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried", a huge & very famous cemetary in Paris that is home to quite a few ODWM, like Chopin, Rossini, Molière, Balzac, Haussman, Oscar Wilde, and LaFontaine. Of course there's Jim Morrison, and there are a few well known women as well, like Gertrude Stein and Edith Piaf. It's a beautiful place to take a stroll, and we were lucky enough to be there on a sunny day! Malheureusement my camera freaked out and deleted most of my pictures of the ODWM, but I'll go back.
Le Mur des Fédérés in Père Lachaise, where in 1871, 147 rebels of the Paris Commune were executed. Unfortunately I know close to nothing about the Commune, so I'll have to do some research and get back to you on that.
Brita & Haussman, radical reorganizer of the city of Paris
Oscar Wilde's tomb-- they put up a glass barrier to protect the stone from loads of lipstick kiss marks that women were leaving on his grave, but if you look closely you can see marks on the glass!


I said goodbye to Brita on Monday, and have been taking it easy since she left. Last week in classes I made decks for 'Go Fish', but with colors instead of numbers, and spent a day explaining the difference between schools in the U.S. and schools here in France. Also had a funny exchange with Lucille, la Directrice of l'École Condren, who was talking to me about something or other and said, you know "cooboys"? and I was like ermmm no? and she said, you know, cooboys! who live in the desert and have guns and coos. And I was like you mean cowboys? and she said, yes of course! that's what I just said. Later in a lesson she brought up that exchange as a teaching point to the class-- she said that one can hear my American accent because I say "cow," while the French people learn English from the English, generally, so they say it with an English accent: "coo." Didn't have the heart to tell her they don't say coo across the Channel, either. :) This weekend was pleasantly busy-- I went bowling with some girls from the basketball team on Friday, and spent a nice night watching movies and staying over with Lucka, the Czech girl who I tutor twice a week. Today Tabea and I were invited for lunch by the woman who teaches yoga on Monday nights, and later had coffee with the assistants in Chauny to celebrate our friend Teresa's birthday. Looking forward to another busy week!