The hood. (aka - Zola)

Since it was sunny, I thought I'd take some more pics of the neighborhood....here goes!

Parc de Proce - you couldn't ask for a nicer place to go walking/running.

The Intermarche where most of my grocery shopping happens and Place Zola, for which the neighborhood seems to be named.

cool little bakery that is often open when others are closed. random fun pic...

pretty church whose bells i hear each day from the apt
view of the tour de bretagne, located in centre ville, from rue de la montagne.

I had fun at a post-thanksgiving feast at the home of another american assistant and her french roommate. the menu included guinea fowl, sweet potato casserole, (complete with marshmallows believe it or not), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, apple and pecan pies and stuffing, (which i made for the first time in my life and it turned out pretty good!)
It was a challenge to adequately explain the what and why of Thanksgiving to the few French and English folks who attended and they were surprised that you would put a little of each dish on your plate all at the same time! Everyone was groaning at the end of the meal and us Americans laughed and said - 'Welcome to Thanksgiving'. I think they were properly initiated!

Some of you may have already heard that Greenpeace has been running a "SarkObama" publicity campaign in Paris with posters depicting Sarkozy in the style of the Obama campaign posters, demanding that Sarkozy - who is currently president of the EU - to work harder on getting greenhouse gas emissions down. It's been getting a lot of attention in the press lately....

finally, i learned that today is Aid al-Adha - a Muslim holiday - and had a few students absent because they were home celebrating with their families. Here's what i discovered online...

Eid ul-Adha (عيد الأضحى), or the Festival of Sacrifice, falls approximately 70 days after Eid ul-Fitr (end of Ramadan) and is celebrated in honor of the prophet Abraham willingness to sacrifice his son as a proof of his loyalty to God. Celebrations usually include presenting an animal (usually a cow or a sheep) sacrifice, and the meat is shared with family, friends and those in need.
The festival also marks the end of the Pilgrimage or Hajj to Mecca.

Also in the news today, a muslim graveyard (in another city here in France) was defaced, which highlights the tension that still exists over Islam in France. Living here in Nantes has been interesting for me, coming from Durham, (which is prolly 50/50 in terms of minority/majority) because there are so many more Muslims here than I've ever been around before. Often women wear hijab, though usually it's just a head scarf, long sleeves and skirts - I've not yet seen any women wearing the niqab, chador or burqua, (ironically enough - i've seen plenty of these latter kinds of coverings in NC!)

Anyway, there's been plenty of controversy and the following Wikipedia article covers it pretty well if you're interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_france

my first greve & beaujolais nouveau

here are some pics of the first strike protest i've been to in france - pretty cool!
perfectly civil yet the feeling of confrontational energy was in the air!

its hard to tell from the pics but the papers estimated that between 5 and 10 thousand primary and upper school teachers along with high school students took to the streets of Nantes last Thursday to protest massive budget cuts to the national school system - it seems their cutting funds and jobs - in particular, for what I would call 'one-on-ones', that is, aides for troubled students.
since the teachers i work with were striking, i didn't have class and so instead i had a blast following them around all afternoon, taking pictures and video.

that night was the annual debut of beaujolais nouveau and after extensive tasting i am happy to say that it's delissssshhhhhussss. ;-)

finally - after knocking on my landlord's door to ask them about a recommendation for a doctor in the neighborhood, i was invited in to chat about it and then invited to tea and cookies - and then they were even so kind as to give me the network key for their wifi - so i now have internet at the apt - for free!!!! in fact - i'm writing this at home right now - woohoo!

so - i continue to be incredibly grateful to have landed here - the delanoe's are wonderful folks. how i'll ever properly demonstrate my gratitude i don't know......

dinner party

This was a fun night at my place - had dinner for 15 (!!!) and it came off pretty good - people even went back for seconds of the curry i made!!

prolly the most international group yet with representatives from the us, ireland, spain, saragossa, austria, chile, mexico and uruguay!

the smoking corner rachels awesome apple crisp

in other news - finally scored a gig tutoring on the side (shhh - dunno if i'm supposed to!)

for my principal's teenage daughter. should be fun, challenging and of course its a little extra dough! word!

nothing else too new or special - loving the thrift stores here in nantes, loving the parc proce where i go for a run a couple times a week and school still going fine....

more soon!

some of the best euros i've spent

ice skating!

OBAMA PRIDE!

this is the way we ride the tram...ride the tram....ride the tram.....

i ride the tram a lot.

no really....i mean it - a LOT!

toussaint and obama!!!

pont aven ; 12th century chapel; quimper's own scotch

ancient celtic tomb; lighthouse x 3; guy we bought oysters from

rocky coastline cool cove

bernard and martine.................. glenn martine and i

loire valley

more loire

carnac...

what a great way to end vacation - am currently sitting in the Lieu Unique watching Obama's acceptance speech with tears streaming down my face and sniffling away. a little embarrassing but worth it.....

so i spent most of my toussaint break with the illustrious glenn gossett, world traveller extraordinaire. after a day or so here in nantes, letting him catch up on sleep, we were off to tours, where we stayed for the night and got horribly lost trying to get dinner. next day, off to taste wine in vouvray, chinon, and saumur. the rain held off long enough for us to enjoy the fall colors on the vines and take in some nice views of the river and the hills on either side. from there it was off to quimper, where we got lost again (sensing a theme here folks?) and where our mutual friend martine lives. she and her boyfriend bernard hopped in the car and the four of us spent the next 2 days driving all over the coast of brittany, seeing wonderfully rocky coastlines, ancient chapels, towering lighthouses, pretty little coves covered in beautiful pebbles and dotted with caves and german bunkers and of course dolmens and menhirs (celtic standing stones and tombs). had a magnificent dinner in pont aven, where van gogh used to hang out, at an old stone mill. also feasted one night on mussles and oysters and i was even brave enough to eat a RAW oyster! can you believe it??
anyway, back to nantes and spent his last night just chilling at the apt, enjoying treats from the traiteur such as homemade pates and tomatoes farcies, some tasty pastries and of course the lovely loire wine that glenn so graciously and generously obtained.

now it's back to work for me - ready to see my students again and continue my french adventure here in nantes....