Weather

The weather has improved now that it's time for me to get back to work! Luckily 3 of my 5 classes today were canceled (Workshop in St. Lo and Parent-Teacher conferences)

I much prefer this view...... to the one I had for the last 4 days

Rain- again

This is the third day of heavy rains we've been having. This means that it's also quite miserable to go out and get anything done. I've not exactly been put in high spirits from it.

And I lost my umbrella.

Dear France

Dear France,
Thank you for exceeding my expectations in number of baguettes being carried and stripey shirts worn. Your ability to perfectly extend strikes until the next vacation is something I'd like to to teach Americans. The number of cigarettes smoked is remarkable and quite possibly belongs in the Guinness Book of World Records. However, I have been quiet disappointed in your lack of berets and expect this to be improved upon. Also, as colder months come, I'll probably start wearing one. I don't care if only old Normandy Fisherman wear them, I'm bringing it back, deal with it.
Merci Beaucoup (beau cul).
Anna

Lessons, Bikes, Beers, Swim and Movies

This “week” has gone pretty well. I guess week is an over exaggeration, I only had class Thursday because there was only a half week of classes and I don't work Wednesdays or Fridays. Thursday was my best day of classes since arriving. For once, I had something planned- mostly Halloween related since the strike meant we never got to do anything with it. The first class of the day I hadn't even met yet between A/B weeks, tests, orientations and strikes. I had half the class at a time but by myself. I introduced myself and then had them make pairs, introduce themselves to each other and then come up in front of the class and present their partner to everyone. This worked out quite well which was rather satisfying. My second class of the day I had them think of Halloween vocabulary and then they had ot think of a Halloween costume, describe it and turn it into a guessing game. For example a student might say “I have a long black dress, green skin and I have a black cat. (I am heavier than a duck but I float) What am I?” “You're a witch!” This went pretty well, and a favorite of mine was “I am white, have no head and dogs like me. I'm a skeleton!”

My last class of the day was a little bit of a flop, but it was ok. It was with the “terminales”- supposedly one of my highest classes. I has short scary stories that make your skin crawl. I would read them them the stories 2 sentences at a time and have them summarize them so they could follow and so they were speaking. I don't know if it was the usual being scared to speak, a lack of comprehension or a total lack of interest but most of it was met with blank stares. The plus side was that at least I had something for them to do for 30 min and I wasn't there staring at my phone (no clocks in the classrooms- what?!) wishing time to move faster.

Friday I had a lot going on. I met up with Meike (the german assistant). We hung out in the garden while the weather held and parted ways when the sun started heading down. That night David, my mentor, and I met up to head out on a mission. A friend of a friend of a friend apparently had many bikes and could lend both me and Huimin one for the year! We met at the school and headed over the other professor (it was his friend) to a town about 20 minutes away. When we got there the friend wasn't home, but his wife was. When she opened the bike shed, I realized that “a few extra bikes” was an understatement. She said her husband had about 45 bikes! She pulled out an old fashioned step through bicycle for me and a smaller one for Huimin (she was in Caen for the day and couldn't come). There wasn't really an area to try it out, as it was a grass lawn and soft dirt road and it's really a road bike. All the same I'm excited about my improved mobility. I need to get a bike lock and a tire pump as I realized the tires are a little soft when I got back to the school. The bike makes me a little nervous as I need to both back pedal and use the handbrake to 100% percent stop, especially on these Coutances hills, but I'm sure it will work out. At 8pm I met up with Vika for the first time. She's here from Belarus working with the AVRIL Association which is an environmental organization that does lots of exchanges throughout Europe. It was actually my first time heading to a bar in Coutances as many seems like they have a sign out front that says “Old Men Only. Please Leave.” “The 3 Pillars” actually had younger people and had a rock band starting up as we left- a little much for a place about the size of our dining room in Ridgewood. Vika is starting to learn French while she's here, lives out at the “College Agricole,” doesn't have roommates, and her internet isn't set up yet. Needless to say, she's been a little isolated since getting here. All of her coworkers sound really nice and have been welcoming so far though. It was nice to be able to chat in English, though now I'm kind of in the habit as thinking of any time I speak in English as a bit of a lesson (though her English is excellent).

Saturday I went to Leclerc, the French equivalent to Meijer or something between a super Target and A&P with Meike (she has a car). Taking advantage of this car situation I bought all the potatoes, onions, soda, cider and beer I might need for a while. It actually wasn't that much but I still had to do 2 trips up to my 5^th floor walk up.

Later I had swim practice, which I was late to- oops. Nothing of particular excitement, just got in the water and did laps. I almost always mishear the directions so I basically just pick a person and follow whatever they do, though sometimes they stop and take breaks and my system falls apart.

In a little bit I'm heading to the movies with Meike, we're seeing “Alpha and Omega” a kid's movie, but also something we're hoping we can understand. It's my first time seeing a movie in France, so we'll see if the movie theatre floor is a gross as in the states.

Also, I'm supposed to be working on this project “Le Concours Lechaptois” named after an old English professor at the school. They hold a recitation competition each year and the participants can win a weekend to England. I need to come up with some readings that they can do- any recommendations? Kate, I'm sure you have some favorites from your CMU days? So far I've been thinking about Barack Obama's “Yes, We Can” speech, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” an excerpt from “War of the Worlds” and that's about all I've got. I have time to think of more, but I'm stuck. There's no particular parameters... at lest I haven't been told any, but basically anything goes, though 2 person dialogues are the best.

That's all for now, and I'll try to get those updates for Zurich and Milan up soonish!

Last shall come first

+Recap for Geneva is up
+Recap for Lucerne is up

So I'm doing things a little backwards with this. I had a great time in Geneva, Luzern, Zurich and Milan. Some of you might realize that this is a few days short of my original plans, and that there are some cities missing. That's because I came home early. Yup, I canceled the last 4 days of my trip and came back early. It felt pretty out of character of me. I love to travel, but I really wasn't enjoying the trip to the fullest. There were a few reasons I came home; the trip was more expensive than expected, I thought I would like the off the cuff plan we had- but it proved to be stressful rather than care free but most of all I was homesick.

Perhaps if I had been with an old friend who knew me well I could have been alright, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to be in Coutances or the States either with the people I love or at lest the ability to skype/ talk to them. There was no point in going to Rome if I couldn't see the Coliseum because of tears blurring my vision.

So in anycase, I left from Milan and took a night train back to Paris on the 30th and got in by 4h30 pm to Coutances (still some strikes). I was beaming the whole way home, happy to be heading back. I haven't done much since I've gotten back- between Sunday and All Saint's Day most things have been closed, but it's been perfect.

Below is my recap for Geneva, with Luzern, Zurich and Milan coming as soon as I can- enjoy!

Switzerland Part 2/3 Lucerne

We arrived in Lucerne without a hitch- of the wonderfulness of Swizz trains; on time to the second. Marc, our CS host met us at the train station and then we headed back to his to get rid of our bags. We hung out for a bit having tea and chatting and then Nicole and I headed into town. With a day and a half to explore Lucerne- a small city, we headed downtown without a plan. We mostly walked around, even in the rain, though being placed in Normandy I don't really mind or notice it anymore. From what we had read the Lucerne Art Museum seemed interesting but we thought we would leave it for Monday.


Sunday night was a relaxing night in eating pasta and chatting with Marc. Marc is a product tester for mountain bikes and he is insanely cooler than he reveals at first. He's traveled just about everywhere and we got him to tell us about his latest outing for work- where they flew him to the top of a mountain in a helicopter to do a mountain biking photo shoot!

We watch a movie together and then headed to sleep. The next morning brought more rain, but we decided to forge ahead anyway. We headed to the Art museum to find that it is actually closed on Mondays.... dang. So we headed on our next mission which was to find Nicole a pair of sneakers since her flats weren't cutting it in the rain. An H&M answered her prayers and we continued our walking. We ended up at the Rosengart Collection which has a great collection of Picasso and Clee. I really enjoyed the museum and was again stuck by Picasso's work.
We asked for recommendations from the ladies at the ticket counter for where we should get Fondue or Raclette. The one older lady didn't speak english, but pointed out a street and wrote down the name to hve us head there to eat. When we got there we looked around to find "The Fondue House." Yup, not even "la maison du fondue" or "die Fondue Haus," but just "The Fondue House." We decided that we could find something a little better, not even more "authentic" just not so ridiculously touristy. We found a cafe/pastry type place that also had lunches and was on the water. They had both fondue and Raclette on the menu, we figured fondue wouldn't be as hard to try another time so we went with the raclette.
Raclette was clearly invented by a crazy cheese farmer because I don't think anyone else could make up "plate of melted cheese with some mini gherkins, cocktail onions and 3 small potato halves." I think the inventor was carefully treading the line between insanity and genius and I'm not sure where he landed. Soooooooooo delicious. I think it's one of those things a stomach can only handle once a year but so yummy!


The rest of the day included more wandering, trying to digest the raclette, buying chocolate to bring home and the purchase of a strange dessert. I heard/saw this dessert from Rachel's blog- who we were visiting in Zurich, and figured I needed to try it myself. It basically looks like something between spaghetti and playdoh. It's chestnut marzipan with whipped cream. A new taste, I don't know if I would get it again but definitely worth trying once.
'
After packing up our things and saying goodbye to Marc we headed to the train station to get our 8pm train and continue onto Zurich!

Switzerland! Part 1 of 3

1. Getting there
Strikes continued through our departure, adding considerable time to it. I live about 3h30 from Paris, but with the strikes there's only about 2 trains in a day because I need to connect. To make the next day less stressful I spent Thursday night at Nicole's in Liseiux- about 1h30 outside Paris. The next morning we started off a little late which resulted in some running to the train station and our lucky arrival to the train. We go into Paris and from Gare St Lazare over to Gare de Lyon without a hitch. We had to wait a bit for our train, so we got some food in the meantime- also for train snacks. We got the Lyon alright- but a little late and our next train was due to leave in four minutes! We asked a conductor what platform our train was on since it wasn't on the board, to which he said "I don't know! Go ask the information center." So we hustled our butts inside and looked at the ensuing madness. The place was overrun with people, sitting anywhere they could find space, waiting for trains. Still frantically looking at signs hoping late trains were for once in our favor we also got on line to talk to a information clerk. When we got to the front she said "Oh, yes, your train was canceled. Take the one in 3 hours." Well, there wasn't much else we could do but agree. So we wandered outside the train station and found a park nearby. The weather was better even just being in Lyon and we were happy for the sun and greenery. We passed the time and hung out finally making it to Geneva around 8pm. As we were passing through the non existent customs an announcement came over saying "The trains from France to Geneva are late because of strikes." And the entire crowd of people just burst out laughing and bascially saying "oh well, at least now we're in Switzerland and things run properly and on time!" (which were basically my sentiments).

2. I didn't mention it ahead of time because I didn't want people to be nervous, but one this trip we couch-surfed. More so than just the informal term of staying at a friend's, it's an entire organization/ group/ community (couchsurfing.org). The idea behind it is getting to actually meet people of the place you're visiting. It seems like the creepiest intersection of craigslist and facebook possible, but it is actually quite awesome. Leo, our host for our 2 nights in Geneva gave us great directions to his flat. When we walked in he said " How was your trip, we are going to a protest and a party tonight, ok?" Ok, sure, why not?
Leo actually lives in a university flat and is an international relations major at the University of Geneva as an international student from Mexico. His friends who we would meet through the evening had some equally crazy backgrounds and interesting stories about how they had gotten to Geneva. Geneva is regarded as an international city in part because of the UN and many NGO's that are headquartered there, and while we were there I got the feeling that no one is actually from Geneva.
In anycase the evening started out with Salsa, Merengue, and other Latin American music with his friends who were over. Through the night we headed ot the protest downtown, which was against a popular alternative music nightclub that was being closed down- L'Usine- or The Factory in English, several bars and Usine itself.

3. The next day, Saturday, Nicole and I headed out around town to just walk and explore. The Red Cross and UN Museums and tours were closed for Saturday, but it wasn't a huge blow to me. Geneva is situated on Lac Leman, which is HUUUUUUUGE ( I would later realize this is a popular Swiz city feature). A pretty city, fairly large but it's still hard for me to conceptualize a city that isn't like New York, which basically doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.

We saw all the big sites- the water shoot, the old city, parks and the UN building. We walked all through the day and got to really see quite a bit. We also ran into smaller attractions like a market, another flea market and so on.

That night Leo was ready to party again, but we didn't have the same endurance as him. We joined him at a get together in the flat below his but bowed out when the party continued on from there.

He was a great host to us and a great first experience couchsurfing. But had to catch our train to Luzern for the next morning so it was an earlier night for me and Nicole.

Lac Leman

Outside the UN building