la vie nantaise

hi again everybody - things here are well - starting to settle into a routine with teaching. i'm very fortunate to have my own space in which to teach at each of the two schools i visit so i've been spending lots of time making materials for the walls n stuff. other than that not much else is up. looking forward to vacation next week and my first us visitor - the illustrious glenn gossett!

here's some fun pics:

awful spider invader in my room. i actually had the balls to get it out with the broom - which was quite and acheivement for me....

yummy breakfast: croissant, plain yogurt w/ honey and granola, naner, java.

ok - how french am i? scarf? check. baguette? check. smoke? check. i think i'm there.

new friends - lunch at angels with fellow assistants from all over the world!

a couple more pics

it's me! in france, man!



no worries - let your dog poop where ever it wants.



along the same lines....beautiful church right? look carefully at the righthand corner
yup, that's right, he's peeing. in broad daylight. on the street.
gotta love europe.....at least they're not as noisy when they spit as they were in china!


now don't get me wrong - i'm not being ugly or hateful - just noting the little differences!
:)

teaching begins!!

my new favorite candy bar....mmmmmmmrowwww!

i began teaching my first group of kids today and it was like riding a bike...or rather like switching from a bike to a trike - it was weird to be teaching english and not french! i kept slipping into french when i should have been speaking english - just the reverse of what i did back home! anyway - it went just fine - the kids had fun and actually learned a couple things and i caught the classroom teacher (who hung out in the back of the room) laughing at me and the kids a couple times and that bodes well too.

so here's the deal - i am working at 2 schools - La Rabotiere, where i teach one class, twice a week, 45 min each time. At the other school - Jacqueline Auriol - i have 4 classes but two of those will be split in half cause they're so huge. so that will make 6 classes there that i will also see twice a week, 45 min each time. Grand total of 14 class sessions/12 contact hours per week.

no sweat!

i also have about 2 hours of prep time at my home school where my mentor teacher works to make materials/plan with her. i don't think i will be doing any of the latter since i think i could do a lot of this in my sleep. bet she's psyched. what i will need help with is the english specific stuff, like exercises to help the kids pronounce the tough consonant blends like TH, the vowels sounds that don't exist in french, etc. she has taught english quite a bit and so should be able to help a lot. all of this is great preparation for teaching ESL back in the states should i need to.

past that - everything else is cool - literally. had a warm wet spell after the glorious week of sun and it's starting to clear a bit but the temperature is dropping. time to nag the landlords for the heat, promised mid october.

in other news, you may recall my recounting the story of one of the spanish assistants having her wallet stolen and how, consequently, i was going to pay so much attention to my stuff. well, looks like i got yet another wakeup call. had my ipod stolen out of my backpack on a very crowded tram the other night. props to whoever did it for getting it out of the zippered pocket without my feeling a thing, (and fast too! i was only standing for one stop) but then that's their profession! so anyhoo wound up with an unintended upgrade to a new nano - 8G this time. such is life.

as for actual fun things - went to a free concert the other night with the spanish assistants - small ensemble classical at the local orchestral hall - i think they do it every month. cool right?

last but not least...anxiously awaiting my absentee ballot so i can vote! i've been feeling very disconnected from the whole race since i don't have TV or enough internet time to follow what's been going on....funny too cause my french coworkers and fellow assistants have been the ones keeping me up to date! get out and vote y'all!

more soon! miss you guys!

the sun is good. very good.

it's still sunny!!! yay!
some important developments:

• found the nearest laundromat near my house so i can use their dryers for things that take 5 days to dry like jeans and towels n stuff.



• got my schedule at school: will be working with mostly fifth and fourth graders- all day monday, all day friday, 1.5 hours tues and 1.5 hours wed. kinda sucks since i won't ever be able to take a long weekend like i imagined but it's not bad by a longshot.



• saw the neighborhoods where my schools are and figured out the commutes to both schools - not bad at all. one school is in a pretty suburban, white neighborhood and the other seems more mixed and maybe not as ritzy. neither is anything like macdougald terrace so that's good. won't ever feel freaked out about being there after dark - which will happen pretty early at this latitude.
  

that's about all for the update but here's something cool i saw today on the street: group of young adults & kids - looked to be mixed race - drumming, chanting and fight-dancing. sure there's a name for it but i can't think of it - maybe something of martial arts? anyway - it was cool watching the guys do flips, handstands and roundhouse kicks and the little (and i mean little! no older than 4!) boys doing their own versions.

the little differences, part trois

chez le chocolatier - there is just no comparison

chez le traiteur -

closest thing in the us might be a really good deli where there's lots of prepared foods.

pastry that rachel brought for dessert & my yummy massaman beef

Miracle of Miracles

The sun came out! and it's been out for 2 whole days! No rain! how psyched am i?
i've been taking advantage of the clear skies to wander around as much as possible and take pictures. here's a bunch!

beautiful scenes in nantes:

crazy house near my apt neat view tour de bretagne

random place i saw from the bus - had to get down and take pics

the tram random doorway random motif on building

place royale cool view by chateau duchesse anne

more in a bit

the little differences, part deux

still raining here in nantes but the weekend is supposed to be sunny and high 60's - woohoo!

i'm anxious to get out and take pics on a nice day so i can post them here...

as for more little things, here goes:

there don't seem to be school buses so students ride public transportation with the rest of us. i'm sure it's like that in big cities in the us but it's quite something to get on a bus at 4:30 when they get out and be crammed up against fifty adolescents! sometimes i think i'm going to get a contact high from the hormones!

also, you have to bring your own bags to the grocery store! i think this is brilliant. of course they sell them if you need (for about .15E) but everyone's got their own system. little old laidies bring a rolling cloth bag in general. reminds me of weaver street. :)

in other news - met my roommate last night for the first time - her name is Julianne, seems about my age and seems pretty cool so far.

also met a whole bunch of spanish assistants yesterday - many are from mexico but there's a couple from spain, and from various places in south america. we toured duchess anne's castle and had a drink at 'le lieu unique' - a cool bar situated in the old LU factory, then off to the train station to see one of the girls off when calamity struck. another of the assistants got her wallet stolen while she was on the phone, so the next hour was spent getting the cops and searching trash cans to see if it got tossed. no luck....sad for her but a good reminder to us all to keep our heads about us!

got my schedule today and it looks pretty easy - all day monday, all day friday at 'jacqueline auriol', tuesday prep period at 'joli mai', wednesday my other hour and a half at 'rabotiere'. looks like all of my students will be fifth and fourth graders and maybe some third graders.

was kind of wishing for either monday or friday off to have the long weekend but you can't have it all and i've got so much vacation that it's gonna be great regardless. tomorrow i find out (at a separate meeting) when exactly i start. could be next week! woohoo! it'll just be observation but that's fine by me. one other thing that i'm not super psyched about is that apparently the classroom teacher has to be in the room with us at all times. this seems to be comforting for the other assistants who have never taught before but for me it kinda cramps my style. i'm just real used to having my own domain....spoiled i guess, by burton. hmpf. that's ironic. never thought i would say that i was spoiled by burton but i really was.

off to make dinner again tonight - found the asian store and obtained curry paste and coconut milk so it's masaman beef for supper! yay!

this is from dinner the other night with 'les espagnoles' ana - from uruguay, julian from argentina

it's the little differences

so far i've noticed that much is the same in Europe but there are significant differences...

for instance:

littering is not a big deal...they have workers who come out every morning with big hoses to wash away and collect the trash

personal space is much smaller here....you can get bumped, leaned on, etc. without so much as a 'pardon' and when talking, folks are right in yer face!

like most of y'all already know - EVERYBODY smokes!

there's so much else....can't think of it all just now.

cool things i saw today whilst wandering centre ville:

wedding

chalk artist

live animal display (pigs, cows, horses, chickens -still haven't figured out why)

parade of fashion designers in their costumes - some really cool ones - a dress made of paper bags, for instance.

wish i had had my camera for all of it but alas i'm only carrying the laptop today.

here's other pics instead

the garden (turtles were hiding)

my room...finished now that i have sheets and pics up!

stay tuned!

ikea makes everything better

nuff said!