I took Thursday off from classes to go to London and visit my uncle, cousin, and some friends. I bought a round trip train ticket from Paris to London and got to go under the British Channel for only 60 euros! Cecil, my roomate, didn’t come with me unfortunately because he had classes, but it was ok because it was still very fun to be in a country that spoke English!!!!!!(A break from a foreign language does some good from time to time) ... Ironically I spoke very little English in London because 5 people from Lyon (people I met last Christmas when I went to France) stayed with us in my uncle's London apartment near Tower Bridge. So I ended up actually speaking more french than english, which was actually really good because I was able to improve a lot and learn more french words (some cool slang words which I probably shouldn't mention here - haha).
In London, my cousin came drove from Bristol to visit me on the first day. The rest of the weekend I spend taking the underground with my Lyonnais friends, visiting typical London monuments like Big Ben, London Bridge, The London Eye (a huge ferris wheel), Oxford Street (a road famous for its shopping), and my personal favorite...Wembley STADIUM. The soccer field where the England National team plays. Since I love soccer so much, I decided to pay 8 pounds to do the full tour. I got to sit in the highest chairs in the stadium, touch the field, visit the MVP room, sit where the players get interviewed after the match, and even check out the dressing room with all the players' jerseys on the wall. It was SOOO WORTH IT.
So that was my biggest trip during November. For the rest of the month, I continued working at my high school in the week, and taking small train trips with Cecil to visit other Normandy cities/villages that we hadn't already seen. One weekend we traveled 1 hour to Dives Sur Mer - it was Absolutetly BEAUTIFUL. I have to return here! The train from runs through the green countryside in the first half of the journey, and then moves almost directly on to the sandy beaches, the train tracks running just parallel to the shore, just 200 feet from the sea! Cecil and I spent the day speaking french, picnicking, enjoying the blue waves, and taking pictures of a spectacular sunset.
Later in november, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with the other american assistant in Lisieux. Even though no french person celebrates thankgiving, the american teaching assistants (3 of us) came together and bought everything we could find from the local supermarket with the word turkey on it (in french 'dinde'). And since we have no oven, we used the microwave and 2 stove tops to cook cordon bleu (with turkey), mashed potatoes, canned corn, and mexican chicken wings. VERY THANKSGIVING if you ask me hahaha. I hope all of yours was a little more traditional. I definitely felt myself longing for a slice of turkey and stuffing, doused with gravy after the French Thanksgiving meal was over...
Teaching has been very enjoyable as well. I work Monday to Thursday every week, and get Fridays off so I can enjoy 3 day weekends. My busiest days are Tuesday and Thursday when I have 4 hours of classes. I have 5 different English teachers I help out with, and they have different teaching methods and ways of using me, the English assistant. Sometimes I am in the same class at the same time with the teacher, helping by going around the room and talking to the students, or helping them with activities. Other times I take a small group of students for an hour in another classroom and try to get them to talk in English, on conversation topics (their favorite subjects are when we discuss the differences between the U.S. and France - like high schools; american students have the same schedule every day and get out of school around 3 o clock, while french students have different classes every day of the week and get out of school by 5 or 6 pm. And finally other teachers have me take half the class and talk to them,, or design English activities to engage them for half an hour. I really enjoy talking to the students and find them all to be friendly and nice, and excited that there is an American around their same age in the classroom. It's weird, it kind of feels like being a movie star since the town is so small. Even the Librarians at the local 'bibliotheque' recognize the two american guys that come in once a week, and always say 'Hello' in a french accent (instead of Bonjour), followed by 'Go Obama'.
What else... that was mostly it for november, besides some other weekend bus trips to small French town.
What's really cool is that last monday, Dec. 8th, my mom came to visit me in france!! In fact she is here next to me, working on her own computer, and she is staying for another week, for a total of about 2 weeks here in Lisieux. It has been wonderful having her here. Since she is a french teacher at the U of O, her french is obviously very good and so it makes living and traveling around france very easy for her. We have already seen many things together, and it is really nice because she has rented a car. Normally Cecil and I do not have the luxury to go to too many places in france, especially if they are far or inaccessable by train. But having a car makes all the difference. And in fact last weekend, we 3 drove to the second most visited touristic site in France - le Mont St. Michel. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it is this incredible castle/abbey/town that was built about 1200 years ago on an island out in the middle of the British Channel. When the tide is low, people can access the island on foot by crossing on the sand, but later in the day when the tide comes in, the castle/town is almost completely surrounded by water (making it extremely difficult to attqck during the middle ages). It rained the entire time we were there, but we took a TON of pictures because it's truly a specila monument, and I was told my a teacher of mine that it is considered by some as 'la ouitieme merveille du monde" - or the 8th wonder of the world. We have many more adventures planned before she goes back this weekend, such as visiting Caen, the city where she studied as a student for study abroad back in the (olden) days, and also Paris of course.
That's it for now, now time for some pictures...
