SPRING!

I’ve found that hand motions make teaching French children more effective and definitely more entertaining (for me, not necessarily the kids). Feelings, weather, animals, and with help from another assistant, I even have “gestes” for the seasons. Winter you shiver and go “brrrr,” summer I have them fan themselves, they like to pretend like they’re falling for fall, but spring definitely is the favorite. I taught them to shout “SPRING!” and kind of jump up in the air and pop out their hands (similar to the second verse of “Hey Fightin’ Tigers,” but with both hands and only once). They get excited about it, and rightly so. Living through an actual winter makes the fairer season all the more welcome. Especially when accompanied by the occasional sunshine, me being shockingly pale. At the first opportunity to bask in its radiation I happily laid out my towel in the exact same spot where we had built a snowman a week before. If interested, you can find a small collection of seasonal pictures here.

Spring brought out the forsythia that I've come to consider as Besançon’s version of Baton Rouge’s azaleas. (Confession: despite having a florist mother and horticulture professor father I only knew the plant's name after asking three different people and spending 30 minutes on Google trying to spell what I thought I heard.) Ubiquitous they are; planting the bright yellow forsythia and daffodils (jonquilles) seems to be some sort of city-wide residency requirement. Their brightness makes them stand out so much in the grayness that they look Photoshopped. The nice contrast almost makes me appreciate the monotone buildings for once. Oh, I’ve finally gotten to a cave! The Gouffre de Poudrey, known not for its formations or number of chambers but for its volume. Definitely no Carlsbad but what can you do? The National Park Service has me spoiled. A decent St. Patrick’s Day,a few cultural dinners and a carnival have also contributed to my spring as well as planning for the upcoming (and final) vacation, set to include many exciting southern cities each hosting many exciting opportunities. But for me, all that’s left to make this season complete is some boats. Because I love boats. ALL boats.

So basically, spring is off to a decent start. Too bad they were predicting snow for later this week...

Misc. #3

Nothing huge or exciting happening lately, just kind of steadily truckin’ along through what remains of my normal “French” life. I'm enjoying spending as much time as possible with the friends I've made here, they're pretty cool. (The picture is a few of us at our own little carnaval-esque costume party. It's a shame you can't see more of me as a pirate, I totally channeled Captain Jack.) But it felt time again for some bullets… which I always enjoy, almost as much as tables. Thought I’d share a few interesting things (or at least I think they might be interesting):

• Recently a staff member at my school left so I got to experience the traditional “Pot de Depart.” After he invited me I worried about not having something to contribute, naively assuming that the “pot” part might hint at “pot luck.” But no, silly American, at this French farewell party the person leaving is the one responsible for ALL of the food. And this guy definitely brought his A-game. Started with little veggies, dips, nuts, dried fruits and things, followed by those savory hors d’oeuvres where the French excel. I enjoyed those little cheesy pastries and my first taste of pâté en croûte. And THEN there was cake and desserts, so much food I didn’t need dinner that night. Surely they can’t expect that from me when I leave because I think they’ll be disappointed…
• On the way back from Beaune we got to experience what was previously thought to be oxymoronic: French work ethic and emergency response. We happened to sit in a car that had a spill of red wine (what else would it be?) that made our whole compartment smell delicious. After seeing the mess, the conductor delayed the train and after a few minutes four grown men came on with huge yellow haz-matty looking jackets, armed with spray bottles and fistfuls of bathroom paper towels they tossed on the ground in clumps. One of them took charge while all of them complained and they left the floor, though perhaps dry, still badly stained. Everything about that just seemed so… French. I wonder what the yellow haz-mat emergency men do when there aren’t puddles of wine to clean up?
• While teaching Valentine’s Day (and by “teaching” I mean making them draw valentines because I had nothing else planned) the students reminded me that the French have their own version of “He loves me/He loves me not.” Except while pulling the petals off their marguerites, they qualify it a little more, of which I approve. I also think it’s culturally telling that they switch the subject from “he” to “I.” I mean, a girl likes to have options and the French deliver: Je t’aime (I love you), un peu (a little), beaucoup (a lot), passionément (passionately), à la folie (I’m crazy about you), and pas du tout (not at all).
• I have four different currencies in my wallet right now. Kind of jet-set, right? Will have to sort them out soon, though. At first glance a British penny looks the same as five centimes and, except for being shinier, that Swiss 20 cent piece looks like kind of like a nickel. In general, I find European currency to be very heavy on the change. I miss the lightness of American bills and the near frivolity with which we can treat our little pieces of metal. You can just toss them into your pocket or purse willy-nilly because here, that little coin could be worth two Euros and not just a few cents.

• 
  It’s still snowing… in March. And apparently this is normal. I just want to wear some skirts! But on the literal and figurative brightside the sun is making more appearances and I did finally build my first honest-to-goodness snowman. Life-sized, with a face and arms and everything! However, he did unfortunately live a rather sad and short and life…

Plans are in the works for Spring Break, Wooooo! I’m having almost as much fun planning it (since I decided to use tables) as I’m hoping to actually have on it.

Adventures #14 & #15: Day Tripping Colmar & Beaune

Colmar

OK, so Colmar was forever ago (pre-winter break) and I forgot to bring my camera, so there’s basically no reason to even write about it now. But I wanted to at least mention it on here since it got a butterfly and all. It was ADORABLE, timbered houses, cobblestoned streets, town squares, fountains, basically Belle’s town from Beauty and the Beast. And that’s Colmar. “A little town, just a quiet village” with sauerkraut and a museum with a display of altarpieces and sparkly bonnets…. and one of the best pastries I’ve had. The French version of a beignet, which is more like a big filled donut, I had chocolate. Also, the restaurant where we ate our lunch of the aforementioned sauerkraut played ABBA… exclusively.

Laura Rachal (our Lyon tour guide) had been in Besançon that weekend, which also happened to be when a friend of my fellow assistant Natalie visited. Made for a fun group and a fun day! Click here for Colmar’s tourism website to check out the sites I failed to capture pictorially.

Beaune

Fast-forward four weeks to this past Saturday for the second day trip of this post: the Burgundian town of Beaune. A cute town, not quite as cute as Colmar but there was wine to make up for that! We didn’t really think about planning our day until the train there, so mark another tally in the whim book. Lucking out, we got to walk around one of the prettiest French markets I’ve seen. Plenty of flowers, cheese, sausages, even strawberries are starting to make their appearance. We stocked up on some spoils for dinner, marveling at how very French it all was.

After walking around a bit more and eating some traditional French food served with traditional French attitude, we headed to taste some wine. For only 9,50€, we tried five different wines at Bouchard Ainé et Fils. Very fun and very different from the California wine tastings I did with mom on our San Francisco trip. At Bouchard, it was an entire interactive experience in which they attempted to connect each of the five senses to wine (I found “hearing” a bit of a stretch…) and talk you through the whole process of enjoying and evaluating your wine. Super enjoyable, though next time I’d really like to get outside see vineyards, maybe during spring break? I even ended up buying a bottle of a Burgundy Chardonnay (a white I actually really like) and will attempt to bring it home for a Boudreaux Sunday dinner. However, if suitcase space becomes too valuable I’ll just have to drink it myself and call it a packing party…

We chased the wine with a trip to Beaune’s most popular non-drinkable attraction, the Hotel de Dieu, a very old hospital known for its beautiful roofs. We complained a bit about the 4,80€ just to see some colored tiles but it was worth it, as was the entire enjoyable day. De plus, I even remembered my camera this time!

Love Train.

I like trains and as far as means of transportation, they are bested only by boats and driving my Ford Escape. (I miss driving and am worried that the five month absence has deteriorated the little talent I had for it.) Traveling France and Europe by train has been relatively easy and cheap, plus you get to appreciate the countryside, which I thought I'd share with you. Since the original background noise was just train talk, I took the liberty of breaking out my iMovie skills and laying down some tunes. Trying to avoid the obvious, I was torn between Beauty and the Beast or Josh Turner... eventually decided on this one though. Enjoy!