Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Why I'm Here

This Tuesday, I had 5 hours of classes. Every two weeks, I will have SIX hours of classes on Tuesdays. It's a bit long, but also cool, because when I'm actually teaching in Canada I'll have to be at school all day, so it's good to get used to it beforehand. I taught secondes, premieres and BTS. Each group is completely different- the secondes are 14 or 15, and some of them have trouble understanding me when I speak because they're really not used to hearing English. As for the premieres, they're a bit more experienced, but they were really hesitant to speak, even though I knew that some of them are quite good at English (having taught them in a different class). It was a bit frustrating, especially since I was really tired and not in the best mood. I hope that they couldn't tell, because it was the first time I'd taught most of them and I want them to feel comfortable with me, and making a bad first impression really isn't the best way to go about it.... As for the BTS, they're my age, mostly guys, and the majority of them have about the same English skills as the secondes, or even less. I could tell that some of them were embarrassed when asking me to repeat myself, but at least they still asked. I hope that I will manage to make them feel like they shouldn't be embarrassed soon, because really, we're all learning together. Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, but I just have to keep going, fumbling along and hopefully getting it right most of the time. Yesterday wasn't perfect. There were silent moments. I had to let my BTS students out early because one of the websites I wanted to show them wasn't working. The lesson I planned for my secondes took longer than I thought, so I had to give them a small amount of homework. I was totally drained by the end of the day, but also really satisfied, because I tried, because I was challenging myself. The more I teach, the more I learn about my students and about teaching and planning, the better I'll be. That's why I'm here.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Toussaint, or the novel about trains

For the past week and a half, I have been on Toussaint vacation. I know, I know, I barely worked for one week and I've already had vacation! Well, that's France for you. I went to Lyon, Toulouse and Carcassonne, three completely different cities in different regions of France. It was fantastic!

First stop, Lyon. My train was an hour and a half late, so I got into town after the tourist office had closed, separated from my travel companions and with no idea how to get to the hostel. Enter the cell phone, possibly the best invention ever. After a few metro transfers, I met up with Jessica and Marie, two English-language assistants from Dôle, at Place St. Jean, next to the Cathedral. Jessica is from Texas and Marie is from the North of England, and before this trip I'd only briefly met Jessica at our stage days, and Marie not at all. We trudged up the Fourvière Hill to drop off my stuff at the hostel, a cardio workout I wasn't really expecting, and then vacation could really start.

We spent about four days in Lyon and had a blast, walking around the streets of Vieux and moins-vieux Lyon , drinking lots of wine, and doing a bit of shopping. We even managed to fit some culture in with a visit to the Musée de Beaux Arts, one of the best art museums in France. The city is gorgeous. It's situated above and at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone rivers, and the main part of the city is an isthmus separating the two. Despite being a little cold, walking was really enjoyable. On Sunday afternoon we went to Parc de la Tête d'Or, a huge park on the north end of the city that has a lake in the middle, a zoo and a botanical garden. It was absolutely full of people; families, couples and groups of friends out enjoying the last of the nice weather. There were people on bikes, rollerblades, scooters, skateboards.... That morning on the banks of the Saone River, we saw a food market, an artisan market, and a book market, where I managed to score some really cool old postcards.

Lyon also marked my first experience with Couchsurfing! On Sunday night, we met up with Jake, an American lecturing in English at a uni in Lyon, at the Gallo-Roman ruins. He led us back to his place where he cooked us supper, an absolutely amazing savoyard dish called tartiflette, which is a bacon, cream, potato and reblochon cheese casserole. Absolutely heavenly. We sat around the coffee table in the middle of his studio apartment in St Georges, and talked about language and travel with him and Lucy, the English translator Couch-surfing with him. To finish off the night, we went to a local pub called the Smoking Dog, where I learned the noble sport of coaster-flipping. That was just a couchsurfing hangout, however. My real couchsurfing happened on Tuesday night. Jessica and Marie left for Dole that afternoon, and afterwards I wandered around Vieux Lyon in the rain, buying a few presents and absorbing the medieval ambiance. At one point, I actually stopped in the public library and read some of a Nick Hornby book (in English, of course) to escape the wet. Then I gathered my suitcase from the hostel and journeyed on three metros to Croix Rousse, an old neighbourhood on a hill overlooking the city. It was a bit of an adventure finding my host's apartment in the dark and the rain, but it didn't take long. Then I got to meet Kevin and Celinève. Celineve restores old books, and Kevin is a web and graphics designer, and that night they had a casual get-together with friends that involved delicious blinis and wine. I got to meet younger French people, exercise my french, which I really haven't been using enough outside of school, and learn a lot about la bise. Apparently, when you're visiting friends, as soon as you enter the house, you have to go around and give la bise and say hello to everyone in the room. The same goes when you leave. The whole experience was pretty cool, to say the least.

The next morning I got up early and walked around Croix Rousse a bit, then left for the train station in time for my 11:27 train. Then I got there, looked at my actual train ticket, and realized that my awesome first class ticket deal had been booked for 9:37, and that I'd been looking at a different ticket in my purse when verifying my departure time. Yes, I arrived at the station a full hour and twenty minutes after my train had left. Instead of having a meltdown, I went immediately to the line for the ticket counter and phoned Matt to tell him my news while I waited. I have to admit I was a little disappointed on missing out on first class, but more because I had to buy a whole new ticket that cost more than my original one, with the added bonus of a way less convenient schedule. I ended up on a train to Montpellier, where I had to wait for four hours for the next train to Toulouse! My original ticket had me arriving around two, and I ended up getting there just before eight! Fortunately, Montpellier was a relatively pleasant stopover. I got to walk around the esplanade without a sweater, eat ice cream, and sit in the grass reading French poetry.

So here continues the pattern of train troubles and arriving in a place after the tourist office closes, with no idea where the hostel is. At least this time I had the number, that Matt had phoned England and gotten his mum to look up, and he waited for me at the station after his train had arrived from Montbéliard so that we weren't separated at any point. On the way over on the train, I'd had a passing thought that perhaps if we were really late, the hostel would have given away our beds or else be otherwise locked up for the night. Visions of sleeping on a park bench began to dance in my head. Luckily, the hostel reception phoned me almost as soon as I arrived at the train station, so I assured them that we were coming and also got directions. Thus began our trudge through nighttime Toulouse. It took us a little longer than we thought to find Petite Auberge de Compostelle, owing to rather vague directions, but we got there just before nine o'clock, when the reception closed. We were so happy to be in Toulouse and to have beds to sleep in that we went out for a celebratory meal of crepes and cider.

Here, owing to a really bad cold and some unfortunate weather, things get a little fuzzy. Toulouse is a really interesting city, completely different from anything that I've seen in France so far- everything is made of red brick, a little gritty, some of it a little rundown, but still amazing. It is full of students and didn't seem to have too many tourists at this time of year, which was nice. We spent a lot of our time just walking around in the streets of the main part of the city, near the uni, the Capitolium (home of the local government) and the main square. We visited the Abbatoirs, a modern art museum in an old abbatoir, and the Fondation Bemberg, a small-scale but quality art museum housed in a former mansion. We also walked along the Garonne River several times, which was oddly shallow considering how high the bridges were and how wide it was. Matt and I spent a lot of time trying to stay out of the rain, unfortunately. We also had to deal with colds and a lack of sleep caused by interesting hostel residents who decided it would be a good idea to play the piano at 4 in the morning. They only did once, thank goodness, or I may have committed verbal assault....

We left for Carcassonne on Saturday morning, a mercifully short journey. Unfortunately, once there we had to walk for half an hour across town with our bags in order to get to our hotel, which pretty much destroyed any energy I had for the day. Sunday was better- the sun was shining and we walked all around the old, walled city. It was a ruin for a long time, but got redone in the 1800s, and it is absolutely amazing. It's super touristy, full of little over-priced boutiques and restaurants, but the actual place, the buildings, the chateau, the basilica, the twisting cobbled streets, the ramparts and the battlements, is incredibly cool. My favourite part was walking around in the morning, before the hordes of tourists choked the streets with their dogs and their voices, and it was quiet and peaceful and I could get more of a feel for the place. We visited the chateau (you had to pay to get in) and the Basilica, and it was really unfortunate how loud the tourists were in a place of worship (it is an actual consecrated Basilica)- I found it pretty disrespectful how they walked all over the sanctuary and took pictures with the flash on. The chateau was really interesting- I found out there that the City has been added to so many times over the centuries that they're not really sure what it originally looked like, and how its present incarnation isn't quite accurate, owing to the artistic license of the architect who oversaw the reno.

We also walked around in the lower city, which was built when the walled city fell into disrepute. It was a bit run down, and some of the architecture reminded me of what I'd seen in Cuba, kind of colonial Spanish. We planned to go for a bike ride next to the Canal du Midi that runs right past Carcassonne, but unfortunately Monday, the day we picked, was windy and cloudy and it seemed like it could rain at any moment. Fortunately we were able to walk along it for a while on Sunday afternoon. The Canal was gorgeous, lined with some kind of gum tree on one side, and then forest on the other. River cruises and house boats passed us a few times, and there were lots of people biking on the path as well. I definitely want to go back to Carcassonne in summer, or spring, when I actually have money to rent a car and stay in a guest house in the country. There are loads of vineyards and little villages around the city, and there's actually an airport as well!

We left Carcassonne yesterday, and spent about 8 hours each on trains getting back to our respective homes. First, we spent just under six hours getting to Dijon on the TGV. Despite the fact that it was pouring rain most of the time, watching the countryside and architecture change every twenty minutes or so was absolutely fascinating. We also read a lot of magazines and newspapers, however! Then, we spent an hour in Dijon waiting for our train to Besançon, buying our tickets while we waited- I had to choose a TER to Morteau that left only five minutes after my other train arrived, or else wait and hour and a half until the 8pm train. When I got to Besançon I had to sprint to the main part of the station to check which platform the TER was on, because the TVs with the platform listings in the tunnel were all turned off. Then I had to run back down the stairs, through the tunnel, up more stairs to the platform and onto the train, all with my suitcase and backpack! I made it, completely out of breath, just before they closed the doors.

This vacation taught me a lot: Check your train times. Then check them again, and make sure you're looking at the right ticket! Bring lots of things to do on the train, because it will be boring. Pack light (I'm getting pretty good at it at this point). Stay calm, and retain your sense of humour. Make sure you know the address, directions and phone number of the place you're staying before you get there. Bring Cold FX. Everything is going to be okay.

Monday, October 17, 2011

It's Adventure Time

So I've been sadly neglecting my blog for the past couple of weeks....This is because nothing much was going on. I've been observing classes, grocery shopping, going on lots of walks, and that's about it. Not having a car makes getting around more difficult, because there are lots of small villages around, but no buses to take us there, which is really too bad because they're mostly just a little too far to walk to. Observing classes is going well, I feel like I'm really getting a handle on the kids' level of English (which is not the best, so I will mainly be working on fluency and pronunciation with them!) Tomorrow will be my first day of classes, so I'm working on last minute prep at the moment.

Anyways, now on to the adventure part of the post. Planning on going into Besançon on Saturday, I put a post up on the Franche-Comté assistants group Facebook wall asking if anyone wanted to join. On Saturday morning I met up with Andrea in Place de la Révolution, and we had tea while waiting to see if anyone else would show up. No one did, but we had a great day wandering around the streets of the city and then walking all the way up the hill to the Citadelle, which is a Vauban-designed fortress built mostly in the 17th century. I believe he also had a hand in designing the Citadelle in Québec city. Now instead of a military installation, it's a UNESCO World Heritage site, home to two museums, an aquarium and a ZOO. It was a little surreal watching baboons climb all over the walls of the dry moat. Andrea and I decided that we were far too tired to go into the museums and enjoy them properly, so we just walked all the way around the ramparts and had gorgeous views of the Doubs/Besançon valley. It was also really nice on Saturday, so we decided to "profiter du beau temps". When it's not as nice outside I can go back up there and go to the museums.

On our way out of the Citadelle, we ran into Jack, an English language assistant from her school, along with five assistants and a friend of theirs in town for the day from Montbéliard. It's a mid-size town an hour north of Besac by train. Most of the assistants are American, but one is English and one is Swedish! I ended up going to the main square and having a drink with them all, and then got invited to come and stay with some of the girls that night at their house in Montbéliard. I had to decide pretty quick, since the last train to Morteau was at 6:30. I didn't have anything with me, just a backpack with a camera, water bottle and train schedule, but I really didn't want to go back. It seemed silly to miss out on a chance to get to know my fellow assistants and see another part of Franche-Comté! So I missed my train and went out for dinner with them instead. After a delicious pasta dinner we said goodbye to the Besac assistants and caught the train to Montbéliard.

I spent the night at the really cute little house that three of the girls rent together. The evening itself involved a lot of wine, meeting more assistants from both Montbé and Vésoul, a lot of conversation, and a short visit to the local Irish pub, where the bartender spoke perfect English. It was excellent. Morteau feels a little bit isolated from the rest of the region, and I really hadn't met a lot of other assistants, so it was nice hanging out with a bunch of really cool, like-minded people. On Sunday, Matt, the British lycée assistant, showed me around town before I had to catch my train. I saw the Rhine-Rhône Canal and a really cool astrological clock. I didn't end up getting home until about 8 last night! They've invited me to come back sometime, and I've invited them to come and hang out in Morteau at some point as well, especially when it snows, because then we can all go skiing together. I'm ridiculously excited for skiing! And also for friends, of course :).

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Administrative Duties

Yesterday, the other assistants and I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to take the train into Besançon to arrive in time for the introductory day for foreign language assistants. It was held at a huge high school in the northwest quarter of Besançon, and almost all of the assistants from across Franche-Comté were there, so about 55-60. The point of the day was to help us out with our numerous papers and forms, and also to explain our duties and what it really means to be an assistant in a French school.

I was put in a group with all the non-EU english-language assistants, most of which are from the States. There was also a girl from India, which I thought was pretty cool. We spent the morning watching presentations about our rights and responsibilities as assistants, as well as information about Social Security, Health and Property Insurance. It was a bit long, and it didn't help that I'd been awake for about 7 hours by the time lunch rolled around! However, it was informative, because I found out that it's really important to have health and property insurance in France, and that there are insurance companies that serve only teachers. The presenters gave us all a bunch of paperwork to fill out and send in once we have our banking info, which I thought was pretty convenient.

After lunch, we did a speed-dating style game with a group of EU assistants that involved them presenting their dream vacation spot to us and then interviewing us to see if we'd be a good travel companion, based on common interests, etc. It was a good way to get to know a large amount of people in a short amount of time, and the French teachers leading the activity also made us speak to each other in French, which I thought was a great idea. We're here to learn, after all! At the end of the activity, I discovered that the entire thing had been a sort of exercise to help us learn how to make a lesson plan. It was like being in an Education Lab course at Fac all over again. I'm glad that they did this with us, because I'm sure that there are many assistants who don't have a background in education like I do and lesson plans are super important. Another thing that reminded me of the Education program at Fac was the head teachers' talk of authenticity. As assistants, we are authentic examples of our respective languages, and we need to make sure that we give the students that authenticity. We have to ensure that our communication is genuine and create organic moments of language expression. To translate the ed-speak, what I mean is that when we're deciding the activities that we want to do with the students, they can't just be rote exercises. They need to be original, interesting, appeal to their interests, and sometimes include aspects of our own culture.

When we got off the train in Morteau last night, a woman who'd been sitting a couple of seats down from us with her bicycle came up to us and said hello. It turned out that she was American, formerly from Mississippi, but now living in Morteau with her husband. She gave us her digits in case we wanted to hang out one day. This trip is definitely teaching me how small the world can be. When I first heard about Franche-Comté, it seemed to me like a cozy, small-town sort of place, but I'm finding out that it's a lot more international than I thought. It's a border area that has access to Switzerland, Germany and Italy, and many international students study at the Université de Franche-Comté in Besançon. I like how my perceptions of the world are being challenged all the time: it's one of the reasons why I decided to do this.

To completely change the subject, at the end of the day yesterday, Felipe, Greg and I went to the Centre ville and to the SFR store to organise our internet. In exactly one week, we're getting a box installed that will have cable, telephone and internet! This morning I finally opened a bank account, which took about an hour, but the conseiller was super nice and I'm happy with the bank I chose. This allowed me to finally order a cell phone this afternoon that will arrive in a matter of days. It's such a relief to have those things figured out. Finally, I will no longer be incommunicado!

Monday, October 3, 2011

L'installation

Sorry for the radio silence! I still don't have internet, though hopefully I will have it by the end of the week. I've been relying on the free wifi at La Bousse, a local bar, and a transient signal called NETGEAR that sometimes gives me really slow internet in my own room. At the moment I'm sitting in La Bousse drinking a lemonade and typing this small message to you.

Last week the Spanish assistant, Felipe, arrived on Monday evening. He's from Costa Rica and used to work at Hewlett Packard. The German assistant Greg arrived on Tuesday afternoon and surprise of all surprises, is originally from LEDUC. Yes, Leduc, a small city about 300km north of Calgary, my hometown. He's been in Besançon for the past several months studying French at L'Université de Franche-Comté. German is one of his mother tongues, but he was born and has lived in Canada for most of his life. We were both pretty astonished to be meeting each other here, so far from home.

I spent most of the week either getting to know Morteau or wandering around a little bored, because my procès-verbal d'installation (proof of job) and attestation de logement (proof of housing) weren't ready, preventing me from getting a bank account and cell phone. Fortunately, I have them now and I've set up an appointment to get bank account on Wednesday morning. Morteau is a cute little town, population around 7000, and about 5km from the Swiss border. Therefore, a lot of French people live here but work in Switzerland, and some Swiss as well. They also do their grocery shopping here because prices are higher in Switzerland- there are four full-sized supermarkets: Casino, Intermarché, Carrefour and Netto Hard Discount. One day I'll have to talk about the differences between French and Canadian supermarkets. There are several bars, but the biggest are La Bousse and Le Terminus, and I think that these will be our bars of choice in the future. The bartender at La Bousse already knows our faces pretty well, considering we've been in at least four times in the last week! (Just to use the internet....mostly.....). There are several places to buy clothes and lots of cute little shops, as well as two cinemas. I'm sure that I won't be too bored here, as long I plan things to do on Sundays when almost everything is closed.

All of the English teachers are super nice. They ask me all the time if I'm settling in well and if I need anything. This weekend I might go for a drive around the valley with one of them. This afternoon I started observing the English classes. The first class was on reading comprehension, but the second was supposed to be presentations about new, innovative restaurants. Unfortunately most of the class claimed that they had filmed videos of their presentations, which are due on Wednesday instead of today. So I got to see two presentations on fictional gastropubs, one of which was located on platforms in a swimming pool in New York :). After the presentations, I was helping some students edit their presentation scripts, and discovered that they couldn't understand my accent. I ended up mostly speaking to them in French, which wasn't a big deal, but all the same it was a bit disturbing because I thought that I was going to be teaching them in English..... I will have to work on my speaking skills apparently. I was talking with Felipe later on, and he'd had the same problem. We both decided that we probably speak too fast and need to focus on speaking clearly when using our native languages. It's funny, because I don't really think about it normally. I know that sometimes I speak too quietly in English, but too fast or not clearly enough, not so much.

EDITED TO ADD: This situation shouldn't have been a total surprise to me, really. After all, some of these kids don't have a ton of years of experience with English, and I need to be prepared for that. I will try my best to speak in English with them, but I have to be patient, ask if they understand, rephrase, ask again, ask them to translate what I just said into French, and sometimes explain more complicated things in French. It's actually good practice for teaching in Immersion, apart from the translating and speaking in the native language part.

In any case, it's getting late. I have to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow morning in order to take the 6:50 train to Besançon for our first practical day. We're getting together with all of the language assistants in the region of Franche-Comté in order to learn more about how to do our paperwork and more about our duties. It's gonna be a long day, but I'm excited to meet all of the other assistants!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Dimanche

Today is the nationally sanctioned day of rest, and so I’ve spent it resting too. I emerged from the residence for a short walk around town, where I quickly discovered that almost everywhere is closed on Sundays, as I’d guessed. I’ll have to figure out things to do on Sundays in the future that don’t involve shopping or eating in restaurants. There was almost nobody walking on the sidewalks, but it seems that every young person in Morteau and the surrounding area owns a scooter or a motorcycle, and that Sunday is the day that they take them for a ride! The buzz of engines has been in my ears all day. In the bus parking lot down the hill from my “château”, there were about ten teenage boys sharing four motorbikes, taking turns riding them around the bus bays and filming each other for an hour or so.

I’ve also figured out that if I want to eat at the canteen, I have to get there right when it opens. I heard that lunch was served at noon, and I got caught up organising my room and didn’t get there until 12:30. Naturally, it was completely empty and all the food was put away. Fortunately, two really nice surveillants (supervisors) helped me find something to eat, so I was OK. This could be a problem, because punctuality isn’t exactly one of my strong points—but then again, food is one of my favourite things, so I think that I’ll adapt pretty quickly!

My parents left for Switzerland this morning. They really were a big help in getting me set up here. Yesterday, we went in to Besançon, a gorgeous city that I’m sure I’ll be visiting often. It’s an hour-long train ride away, and with the 12-25 SNCF discount card I can get there and back for 10 euros. The city centre is walled and full of historical buildings, and the lovely Doubs River runs right through it. We spent a bit of time in the city centre, but then left for the outskirts in order to go to Espace Valentin, a huge outdoor shopping mall where I picked up some essentials. When we got back to Morteau, they helped me rearrange my room so that all of the wardrobes are against one wall and the tables against another. I will put up some pictures once I’ve got it decorated, which I think will involve covering the walls with wrapping paper or something similarly cheap. A previous occupant also left behind some posters of Monet prints, which I will definitely make good use of. Afterwards, we had supper at L’Époque, a really nice restaurant serving local specialties. I got to try the famous Morteau sausage, which was pretty good. I’ll be going back there for sure, but not often, because it’s not exactly in my budget range!
This next week is going to be super busy. I have to get a bank account, a cell phone, occupant’s insurance, and a 12-25 SNCF card. I’m hoping that I can get all of that done by Friday, but we’ll see…

Friday, September 23, 2011

Arrival

After a brutal plane ride of 8 and some hours, packed into our seats like sardines and unable to sleep without contorting into anatomically impossible positions, my parents and I arrived at London Gatwick Airport in time to watch the sun rise over the English hills. We had a delicious breakfast at Joe’s Coffee- I got to try bubble and squeak, a patty made of turnip, potato, onion, and something green. I’d always wondered what it was… Next, we had three hours to kill until our flight to Geneva, which I mostly spent sleeping and being generally out of it. Then we had a speedy, comfortable flight to the Swiss city, grabbed a rental car and headed to Morteau. The GPS led us on a merry ride through the “mountains” (I have trouble calling them mountains, they’re all shorter than the tree line!) and valleys, using a combination of highways and charming, shoulder-less, one-lane back roads that took us past farmer’s fields and through tiny, ancient villages.

We arrived in town at about 6pm and I met up with my teacher, who took us over to the residence and the school so I could see everything and drop off my luggage. It was a lot to take in. The building that I’m staying in is the old residence of the lycée, and it hasn’t had students living in it since about 2008. My room has three wardrobes, four tables and two beds. One of the beds has no mattress, however, so it is now leaning against the wall. Some people may be interested in the fact that I’m only using two of the wardrobes for clothes- the other one is for general storage. The kitchen was a bit of a shock, but now that I’ve been here a few days, I’ve gotten used to it. I will have to look up lots of recipes that you can make in a toaster oven. There’s also a canteen that I’m allowed to eat at; it’s used by the boarders and I think the non-boarding students also eat lunch there during the school week.

I don’t have internet yet, so I’m writing this on Word and will post it when I get the chance. The other assistants are arriving sometime this week and we’ll figure out the internet then.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Recipes

Tonight, I'm taking the time to write down some recipes to take with me. I don't know how easy it will be for me to access the internet while in France, and I'll have time restrictions if I need to phone the recipe-bank (aka Mum) for advice. I decided on a few dessert recipes like Puffed Wheat Squares and Nanaimo Bars, the latter of which I will do my best to talk up to my French friends-- see, Canada does have some sort of national food! There are also the unimpeachable Lentil Chili and Channa Masala, my go-to comfort dishes, as well as Butter Chicken, Lasagna, and my friend Steph's pancake recipe. As for ingredients, I'm seriously considering bringing maple syrup with me, and I'm definitely bringing peanut butter, which is hard to find in France.

A friend of mine was recently in Argentina for several months and whenever people asked her to make her some kind of Canadian food, she made pancakes. They were a big hit, but I would like to have a little more to show for myself when I get asked the big question. It's true that Canadian food is a little bit of a paradox- we're a country of immigrants, so most of the food we eat here is eaten somewhere else. However, it's all mixed together and influenced by local ingredients- for example, ginger beef, which is sold as "Chinese food", but was invented in Calgary sometime in the 70s. There's some Québécois cuisine that I don't know a lot about (tourtière, smoked meat, Montréal bagels, etc), but I will try to make sucre à la crème one day (it's a sugary fudge that tastes like rainbows and sparkles).
All in all, I just hope that it will be relatively easy for me to cook for myself and that I won't be stuck eating cafeteria food, which is a distinct possibility. Though French cafeteria food isn't in the same realm as Canadian caf food, not by a long shot, I feel that I will enjoy discovering French food a lot more if I can make some of it by myself.
What are some foods that you feel are distinctly Canadian? What are your comfort foods that you can't do without?

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Literature?

Today I drove up to Chapters so that I could pick up some teen magazines to show my classes when I get to France. One of my duties as an English-language assistant is to expose my students to the teen culture and vocabulary of Canada. Unfortunately, there are no Canadian teen magazines, or at least none that I could find during my perusal of the Chapters magazine section. How am I supposed to show them the difference between Canadian and American teens if they only read the American magazines? But it seems I have spoken too soon: I just googled "Canadian teen magazine" and found Faze, "an exciting magazine published for young Canadians. Since its launch in 2000 Faze has been a refreshing break from the standard dumbed-down youth magazines that only serve up regurgitated American pop culture and prom diet tips. Faze offers its readers insightful, hopefully inspiring looks at real life issues, youth culture, music, movies, personal style, current affairs, real people, technology, travel, careers, health and fitness and much more." I guess I'll have to go and find a copy then! I also thought I should find some magazines that will interest the boys in the class. Does anyone have any suggestions?
While I was at the bookstore I also went through the travel guide section. I'm not sure if I should bother buying any travel books for my trip, since I haven't even decided on the places I'm going to visit. On the long list are Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Prague, Barcelona, Tuscany, Greece, Normandy, Nantes, Strasbourg, Paris, Provence and Belgium, but where I end up going remains to be seen. My (hopefully) many side-trips will most likely be planned only a few weeks in advance and the Internet and word-of-mouth will probably be my main resources. Suggestions, thoughts?

Monday, August 29, 2011

Packing, part the first

Today, I started packing. I found all of the Rubbermaid totes in the house that I'd used to bring my clothes back from Edmonton, and emptied them out onto the floor of our downstairs TV room. I found a pair of red teddy bear-spattered fleece pants that I haven't worn in 2 years and likely never will again. I also realized that I have more clothes than I ever thought possible. I have nine skirts! How did that happen? I also have at least twelve variations on the sweater: cardigans, a sweater vest, a duster, hoodies, pullovers.... It's time to get picky. As I have trouble with sartorial choices, taking at least ten minutes to pick out an outfit even on the most casual of days, this is going to be a little difficult. I may need to resort to outside help!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Preparations

Wow, it's been a few months, hasn't it? Since my last post, I have worked in Edmonton for May and July, gone to Europe for five weeks, and then returned to Calgary.
This Monday I flew to Vancouver for my visa appointment on Tuesday morning. I got to stay with an old friend of the family whom I rarely see since she moved out to the Coast, go shopping and of course sample fantastic West Coast sushi. My visa appointment on Tuesday was very straightforward: I went down to the French Consulate on Pender Street and got buzzed in, and then waited for not even ten minutes before I got called up (I was there at least twenty minutes before my appointment time!). I gave them my documentation and they checked it all out, before taking my fingerprints with a cool little machine and my picture as well. Then I had to run down the street to buy an Expresspost envelope at the local Shoppers Drug Mart- I had brought an envelope with me, but they suggested Expresspost so that I could track the package. It would have my passport in it, after all! After this relatively painless experience, it was off to Granville Island for lunch, and then the airport to return home.
This afternoon I decided to track the package online, just for kicks, and found out that it had arrived at 11am this morning! While I was researching getting a visa online, people said it could take up to three weeks to receive, and so it was important to leave plenty of time in between your visa appointment and your flight out of Canada. Therefore I was very surprised that it didn't even take five days for the Consulate to process my visa. It's a relief to have it already, to be honest, and now all I have to do is get my packing done....now that's going to take a while!

Friday, June 24, 2011

France, here I come!

This week I received my acceptance package from France in the mail! I found out that I'm going to Morteau, a little town in the Jura, a mountain range just north of the Alps. Apparently it has a little under 7000 people and a whole bunch of hiking and cross-country skiing trails nearby. The school is called Lycee E Faure, and it's a technical high school where kids go to learn clock-making, jewel-cutting, factory tech, jewelry-making and more, which sounds pretty cool. I've sent an e-mail to the head teacher of English that I'll be working with, asking her about the town and the school. I'm excited to hear back!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

EUROTRIP IS GO

This summer my friend Erika and I are going to backpack through Europe for 3 weeks, from July 18th to August 5th. We're going to Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Rothenburg, Nuremburg and Bayreuth. Yesterday we booked two hostels, and this afternoon I bought my backpack. Needless to say I am ridiculously excited.