Cajun Country Half Marathon 2013 Recap

T.R.A.I.L. (Transportation Recreational Alternatives In Louisiana) puts on the Cajun Country Half Marathon every December just before the Christmas holiday. Until recently, this was Lafayette's only half marathon race. On Sunday, March 30 all of that will change with the Zydeco Marathon and Half Marathon's inaugural event. Sadly, due to events that transpired during the Cajun Country Half, I will not be racing the Zydeco. Maybe next year. To participate in the race and pay it forward for all of the lovely men and women who have volunteered to hand me water and point me in the right direction during the various races I've run, I will be volunteering on the Zydeco course. Volunteering will also be a great way for me to watch my training partner and friend finish her second half.

Pre-race, looking pretty excited. 

December 13 looked pretty grim on the hour by hour forecast I was obsessively watching in the wee hours of Friday night/Saturday morning. I lay wide awake at 4:30 a.m. with numerous questions running through my mind. Why have I not really trained/run since my last half in November? Should I wear shorts? Pants? Rain jacket? What happens if my feet get wet mid-race? Maybe the rain will deter everyone and the race will be cancelled?

The race was not cancelled, and it was a completely different experience than my first magical world of Disney half. First of all, only about 40 runners made it out to north Lafayette in the questionable weather. Cory and I were running a little late, so we basically had enough time to park, stretch and jog into place at the starting line. I waited for hours with thousands of other runners before I even saw the starting line at Disney.

Read on– there's more!

Disney Wine and Dine Half-Marathon 2013 Recap

   

     I finished my first half-marathon exactly 10 days ago and could not be happier with the experience. My friend Hannah and I ran 13.1 miles around the happiest place on Earth– Disney World! I decided to RunDisney because who doesn't want to ride Splash Mountain, drink wine from all over the world, and run around Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot all in weekend?

     The race itself went well! Around mile 8 I started wondering why I was still running, and the last mile was pretty brutal because we couldn't see the finish line. There were also some "hills" due to the path we took from park to park on the highway. Overall, I would highly recommend this race to anyone and everyone.

     Advice to anyone considering a RunDisney event:

     * Plan early. We bought race tickets in April or March, and the race was sold out by August. If you have cheerleaders accompanying you, buy their post-race tickets early too. On the same note, don't forget to pick up post-race party tickets for non-runners at the race expo.

     * Find a training plan and stick with it. I used this plan.

     * For Wine and Dine, if you can get to Disney on Thursday and spend all day Friday in one of the parks it's totally worth it. I've never been to Disney with so few crowds.

     * Getting to and from the expo takes a long time. We thought we might have enough time for Hollywood Studios on Saturday. Wrong. After waiting about 30 minutes for the bus, driving to the ESPN Wide World of Sports, doing a little shopping, and getting back to the hotel, we were gone for about three hours. Also, there are no buses from ESPN to any of the other parks, so you would have to go back to your hotel first then make your way over to another park. All of the waiting and walking can sap your energy, which is less than ideal before running 13.1 miles. Just spend the day at the expo and enjoy a late lunch/nap before the race on Saturday.

     * You can take pictures with characters at the pre-race party, and there's also lots of dancing. We didn't notice the characters until about an hour into the party, so we were cutting it close to get into our gates in time. Don't worry about bathrooms, there are plenty.

          - These were two of my favorite things at the pre-race party.

     * Designate a meeting spot in Epcot before Saturday night when there are thousands of racers/cheerleaders running around trying to meet up. We picked the cranberry bog in front of the big fountain. Yep, a cranberry bog.

     * Since this was my first half, I wanted to finish the whole thing without stopping. If I were to do another Disney race, I would totally stop and pose with characters along the way. I almost lost my resolve for Darth Vader and Princess Mini Leia.

Leauxcal Lundi: New Iberia City Park

     New Iberia's City Park is making moves– well, not the park itself, but members of our lovely community committed to making it a better place for families to play, run, and relax.

     The picture above shows the running routes, the longest being 1 mile. If you run all of these routes and wander into a few of the streets neighboring the park, you can train for a 5k, 10k, and even a half marathon. It is one of the few places in town with enough sidewalk to have a nice long run uninterrupted by cars.

     A local young professional's group, On Tap, raised money to build a new jungle gym. I saw it for the first time the other day, and I just hope that big kids are allowed to enjoy the fun too. I'll test it out and let you know.

     The park also offers recreational sports, wellness programs including Yoga and Zumba, a boat launch, tennis courts, swimming lessons in the summer, and a Veteran's center. Raisin' Canes is co-sponsoring a dog park on the bayou set to open on October 19 at 10am. Should be fun!

     I have spent a lot of time in the park over the years playing softball and tennis, teaching swim lessons, and more recently training for a half marathon. I am so happy to see that it is getting better all the time and that so many people from all over New Iberia are using it to their advantage. Just watch out for the geese.

   



   

America's Prettiest Towns: Leauxcal Lundi

I'm going to refer to Forbes Magazine for this post. Basically, New Iberia is the best. Read on...

Shadows on the Teche: Leauxcal Lundi

A little Instagram.

     Last week I took you to Belle Ecorce Farms in St. Martinville. This week is an utterly shameless plug for a leauxcal place I hold near and dear to my heart. The Shadows on the Teche was built from 1831 to 1834 by David and Mary Weeks. After four generations of Weeks family ownership, William Weeks Hall bequeathed the plantation and all of the furnishings, documents, and clothing therein to the National Trust for Historic Preservation–– one day before his death in 1958. I have worked as a tour guide at this lovely Antebellum home and absolutely love to revel in the property's moss-laden oaks, winding paths, and rich history. 

     As you cross the hustle and bustle of Main Street New Iberia, your mind is in modern mode.  Everyone vies for the best spot to snap an Insta pic of this majestic plantation. The second you enter onto the property through a side-gate in the long white fence, the world slows to a more forgotten pace. Dragonflies float lazily from one azalea to the next. The bayou crawls toward the Gulf, not making a sound. You can almost picture yourself lounging on the wide front porch with hand fan and a glass of sweet tea watching the horse-drawn carriages clop past. Maybe without the smells and hoop-skirts of the early nineteenth century. 

     The Shadows on the Teche is so named because of the lovely web-like shadows cast to the ground by the live oak trees and myriad other flora and fauna in the garden. Teche is the name of the bayou that runs through New Iberia. The word teche is Chitimacha, our local Native American tribe, for "snake." Although the Shadows was a working plantation, sugar was not produced here but on another of the family's plantations on Weeks Island. The architecture is grand, neo-classical, and very sturdy. The home's interior is filled with items original to the Shadows' Antebellum era. Tours emphasize the Weeks family's personal lives, the role of women and children, the work done in and around the house, the production of sugar, and the house's role in the Civil War. You can even take a tour in French!

     It is amazing how many visitors we get to tiny New Iberia from around the world. Many stop by while visiting Avery Island, some are huge James Lee Burke fans, and others are from New Iberia and have lived here all their lives without seeing the plantation's interiors. No matter your relationship to this place, it is instantly magical and a wonderful way to see, smell, and sense what life in the Antebellum South may have been like. 

I spy at the Shadows: 

• Look for Mickey Mouse. He visited the house.
• The garden is home to statues, a rose garden, coy pond, and the family cemetery. One family    member's name is listed among the tombstones, but the body is not included. 
• A receipt from the 1850s is in the pantry. Scan the list for an item associated with America's westward expansion and the building of the continental railroad. It's something we don't eat too often today. 
• Two corner stones in the garden mark the location of one of the home's many outbuildings.  

A great back porch view of the house's second story beneath the arms of a towering and gnarly live oak.

      After visiting the house, you can stroll down Main Street and sample some of the local fare from: A Cake to Remember, Clementine's, Bojangle's (sushi, not biscuits), Victor's Cafeteria (if you're a James Lee Burke fan this is where Dave Robichaux eats), or Cafe des Amis  (related to Cafe des Amis in Breaux Bridge). They're all within walking distance of the museum, with Cafe des Amis being the farthest- about a mile. 

     Before visiting the Shadows, considering walking to the Bayou Teche Museum. You can park at the Shadows and walk down a block on the right side of Main Street to learn a little about New Iberia and this region's history and industry before going into more detail at the Shadows. 

After the Shadows, you can drive to Conrad Rice Mill–– America's oldest working mill. Mary Clara Conrad Weeks Moore, the Shadow's original owner, was not related to the Conrad rice family. If you're gluten free, the mill store has plenty of rice flour mixes for baking, cooking, and frying.  

Belle Ecorce Farms:Leauxcal Lundi

     We're geauxing leauxcal every Lundi/Monday!

Belle means beautiful and ecorce means bark, or rind. The goats seem to think the farm's bark is beautiful and tasty. Maybe that's what gives their cheese such great flavor?

     In lieu of a mot du jour Monday, I'm going to start some Leauxcal Lundi posting. Why their weird spelling of local? French names like Boudreau were changed to Boudreaux when Cajuns were asked to sign their names. Many were illiterate at the time, so x marked the spot. We use the spelling today in place of an "o" sound to let everyone know it's something Cajun/Louisiana related. So, there will be some French words and flavor thrown in to these posts because they're all about life in Southwest Louisiana: the amazing people, the food that makes you want to slap 'yo mama, and the interesting places you might find amid the cane and down the bayou.

     If you like goat cheese, Belle Ecorce Farms is a great stop on the way to see St. Martinville's main square and famous Evangeline Oak. The Tres Belle Chevre is what you want. St. Martinville is a 15 minute drive from New Iberia about a 30 minute commute from Lafayette. The town itself was one of the first established in the Attakapas District, an area laid aside by then French Louisiana for cattle, and the final stopping point for almost 200 Acadian refugees deported from Nova Scotia.

     St. Martinville's downtown has some French quarter-type architecture all surrounding the main square, it's jewel being the local Catholic church. The St. Martin de Tours church has a beautiful Lourdes-esque grotto and some of the prettiest Christmas lights. Behind the church, you can visit the oak tree where Longfellow's Evangeline purportedly landed and waited for word from her love. On the same street the Acadian Memorial and African American Museum, awaiting any visitors interested in learning more about the area's Cajun and Creole heritage.

     Back to the goat cheese, though. If you're driving to the farm, keep your eyes wide-open all the time because the road is easy to miss. I've taken poor Mike on many an adventure that led to wrong turns, dead ends, and sites that were closed for a multitude of reasons. I thought our visit to Belle Ecorce might be the same after a few wrong turns, but I spotted one goat and then almost 200. We found the pot of cheese gold at the end of the rainbow.

     This place doesn't just have goats. There are miniature horses, birds galore, and even a few hairless cats. Mike is standing in front of the farm's main house in the picture below, but the delicious goodness is in a little room next to the aviary. Watch out for the roosters!

     We went for the Tuscan Party Disc and some kind of chevre with strawberry/raspberry. You can almost eat the second one like yogurt, it's so creamy. The chevre would be great on pancakes with fresh raspberries and strawberries sliced over it. The Tuscan Party Disc spread onto a crostini with roasted peppers on top is scrumptious. If you're gluten free, nestle the cheese in an endive leaf, sprinkle with paprika, and enjoy! 

     If nobody's home, don't worry. You can still buy your cheese, just leave your money in the honor box. It's so ESA and so Davidson. I love it! Geaux leauxcal and make a trip out to the farm. If you feel like staying a little closer to home, or trying the cheese at a restaurant, Jolie's Bistro and Pour in Lafayette feature the Tres Belle Chevre on their menus. You could even pair the cheese with some Vouvray and imagine yourself in the Loire Valley, just with a Cajun flair.  

     WesMar Farms, near Alexandria, is another local goat cheesemonger. I haven't visited the farm yet, but you can find them at the Market at the Horse Farm in Lafayette every Saturday. Just in case you can't get enough goat. 

LSAT Livin' and Yoga

This may seem a little extreme, but after a few months of studying I feel like it could be a good strategy.

     

     Have you ever taken the LSAT? Considering it? I'm in the throes of battle with logical reasoning, and I'm only beginning to gain the upper hand. My best piece of advice for the moment is this– it applies to life in general, as well- give yourself plenty of time. I decided to take the test in October after taking a pre-June test prep-class and quickly realizing how much I had to learn and practice. Law schools like to have you thinking like a lawyer before you even step foot on campus. They like you to think logically, that is. Thinking in a logical manner is surprisingly difficult. Being under the pressure of a 35 minute time limit does not help. So, lesson learned, all you need is time. 

     My strategies for conquering the LSAT have shifted recently, and it's about time for a new post. 4 months into studying, I give you my suggestions:

• Become a yoga instructor. Learn to meditate and control your mind. Use the breathing techniques to ease standardized-test anxiety. Ok, maybe just taking a few yoga classes will do. But really, become a yoga instructor. I'll go more into detail on that later...
• Drink more tea. Drink less wine. Maybe it's just me, but does coffee seem to make you more tired and less able to concentrate from time to time? I know it's sad, but wine does the same thing.
• Walk more. Bring your mom along. Talk to her about the most common flaw found on the LSAT. She'll love it.
• Take on studying in small doses. 2 to 3 hours is about all I can handle if I'm not actually sitting down for a Prep Test.
• Buy the PowerScore books. Read them. Use them as pillows and hope that some of their wisdom will seep in through your ear. Read them again when you wake up, just in case osmosis didn't work.
• Take one day off a week to just chill.
• Check out these sites: 
• http://blueprintprep.com/lsatblog/  
• http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/
• http://7sage.com/
• http://thegirlsguidetolawschool.com/
• http://www.lsac.org/
• Rock the LSAT! At least, I hope that's what happens come October 5th. 

Atha Yoga Anushasanam

My little Toulouse apartment was the squished three-story building. I miss it. 

"And now the inquiry of yoga."
"Now, the teachings of yoga."
"Now this is yoga as I have perceived it."

There are plenty of different translations of Patanjali's first Yoga Sutra, 1 of 196. Sutra means thread. Patanjali's 2nd century text became an early authority on Raja Yoga, or the Kingly path, and it is still used today as a foundation for most yoga teachings. Since I don't speak Sanskrit, I picked multiple translations of atha yoga anushasanam. All of them are pretty fitting for where I am now because I'm training to become a yoga teacher in Lafayette, LA through Acadiana Yoga & Wellness.

Rewind. I touched down on U.S. soil on Jaunary 1, 2013. I was hoping that the new year would bring new growth and opportunity to my life, and it has. The beginning of the year also brought some new struggles, namely a bad bout of Campylobacteriosis. It's a pretty nasty bacterial infection that I probably picked up in France. The doctor said the culprit was most likely uncooked poultry, but I think the ridiculous amount of unpasteurized cheese that I consumed is a more likely candidate. Accusing a French chef of undercooking chicken is probably the worst accusation of all time. We'll stick with the cheesy explanation.

 After two days at home, I was sick but I was also employed. My new job was completely different from teaching middle schoolers in some ways, but in many ways it was extremely similar. I had never bar tended before, but the staff at Legend's made my training enjoyable. Their margaritas are awesome and so are the quesadillas. My kind of place. Middle schoolers and customers who've had a little too much to drink are surprisingly similar in comportment. I guess I was more prepared for bar work than I thought. After about a month of driving almost an hour one-way from New Iberia to Lafayette, though, I decided to leave the bar to reclaim a non-zombie existence.

Luckily my yoga program started in early January, and it runs until mid-June, so I had some structure to my life. After I left Legend's I got certified in Mat II Pilates. I also went back to the Shadows-on-the-Teche to work as a tour guide, after an almost three year hiatus. I have other small projects in the works right now, but those are a surprise.

Here are a few things I've learned since I've gotten home:
– I missed home more than I thought. My body agreed and actually held off on completely breaking down until I was home, so my mom could doctor me up.
– I miss Toulouse about as much as I thought I would, which is to say ridiculously. I loved the intimacy of the Rose City's streets, my daily coffee at La Fiancee, walking to and from work, the food (even the cheese culprit, it was worth it), the nasal accents, the warmth of the people, and the stunning sunsets.
– It's ok to come home.
– It's ok to decide that whatever job you're doing is not right for you at the time. If opportunity doesn't come knocking, you have to dress up as opportunity and walk out the door.
– If I'm in an airport, something will go wrong. I recently went to Boston, had a wonderful trip, and got to the airport a month early to fly home. Thanks, mom.
– I miss teaching. So, I'm giving it another go next year. Fingers crossed.
– Yoga has this crazy sneaky ability to force you to introspect, heal, and thrive.

Since I'll be doing 200 hours worth of yoga training, prepare yourselves for some yoga advice, poses, philosophy, and frustrations. For now, I'll start as Patanjali suggests by simply observing my own perceptions of yoga in the world and how those observations relate to my life and my students'.

Namaste y'all.

To the teachers and children of Sandy Hood Elementary

     As a follow-up to my previous post, which I wrote last week, I just wanted to write a little something about the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, CT this week. Even though my teaching assistantship did not end up going as I would've hoped, when I heard the news from a friend all I could think about were the over 120 kids that I've worked with. I saw their faces in my mind, along with the numerous others who run around the school yards of this world. It's been interesting to read coverage from the French perspective, since personal firearms are illegal in this country. I've found some of the French comments offensive because people are so focused on the firearms issue that they fail to see the human side of this tragedy. After working alongside dedicated teachers, in tough school situations, who still have their students' lives and interests at heart on the worst of teaching days, I can't help but think only of the children, teachers, and families affected by these past days' events. If you're writing Christmas cards and getting ready for the holidays and feel moved to write a letter of sympathy and/or support to the school, their address is listed below. I hope you will. 

Sandy Hook Elementary School
12 Dickenson Drive
Newtown, CT 06482

If we were having coffee (at La Fiancee of course)...

 
     If we were having coffee, I would need to dominate the conversation with some updates. Only a few, I promise.
   
     If we were having coffee, it would be in my coin- or neighborhood- at the best little cafe in Toulouse. La Fiancee, of course. Our coffee date may even be over Sunday brunch, which La Fiancee just started having three Sundays ago. So far we've been spoiled with black truffle ham and brie sandwiches, terrine de foie gras, and some pretty stellar fromage blanc a la vanille with raspberries on top. Let's not even mention their new muffins and simply delicious cookies. Oh, and they just happen to make the best cappuccino in town as you may recall. I've developed a love for their mocha lately, too. I adore the owners, Olivier and Arnaud, or "the boys"as I like to call them. The cafe is so close to my apartment that I go every day. Actually.

My favorite Frenchies.

     Other than cafe news, the first thing I have to tell you is that I left my job. My job within the French school system has been shaky, at best, from the start, and after much consideration I decided it was time to move on.  

     For personal and family-related reasons, I stopped working last week. Firstly, my students did not really see me as their teacher and thus treated me with little to no respect, depending on the day. Constant conversations and snide comments about American culture were constant, but an off-hand comment about the Cajun Night Before Christmas was the last straw for me. Don't mess with the Cajuns. In all fairness, an individual student may have seen me once or twice a month for an hour. Sure, we had fun talking about Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I worked with so many kids that I barely even knew their names. There was no hope for me giving any one student, class, or school enough attention to really affect their English level. 

     While I absolutely love Toulouse and cherish the connections and friends that I've made here, I cannot justify the means to the end. If the end goal was to live in France, on my own, and to practice my French while gaining valuable post-graduate life and work experience, all of those things have happened in spite of the real reason why I am here. Teaching. 

     On a more positive note, I had some great classes with kids who were truly interested in America and what I could tell them about life in the States. I was also warmly received in each of the three colleges where I worked, and I still enjoy teaching despite the myriad obstacles thrown in my path. I hope to do more in the future. 

     I will miss the friends that I've made here most of all. In the past month, I travelled to Paris with my two assistant friends to celebrate a birthday, and the three of us have added a Quebecoise into the mix since then. The four of us have recently had some great soirees making fondue and ravioli, trying out local wine bars, going to ballets and movies, taking a day trip to Lourdes, going shopping at the Sunday market, teaching each other French and English, and genuinely enjoying all that Toulouse has to offer. 

     Before we go you go, you may be interested in my plans now that I'm jobless in a foreign country. Mike is headed across the pond for Christmas in exactly one day. We have the pleasure of spending some time in Toulouse and Paris. We even have time to throw a day trip to Amsterdam in there. I can't wait to see him! We both fly back to America on January 1st, so I'll start the new year off in a new country, my country, with a new path. I am enrolled in a yoga teacher certification course in Lafayette, LA, and hopefully I'll have a job or two on the side. As for infinity and beyond? We may need more coffee. 

Here are some pictures from the last month, with more to come and posts to follow. 

Overlooking the city of Albi.

Statue of St. Bernadette in Lourdes.

Statue of Mary at the grotto in Lourdes.

Thanksgiving dinner! We even had a real turkey.

In front of Paris' Hotel de Ville.

Fondue night for Joanna's birthday.

La Fiancee's first ever brunch. Nom nom.

Paris' Tuileries Gardens pretty in pink.

Homemade ravioli with salmon and spinach.

Homemade ravioli layered into lasagna and topped with cheese? It happened.

Toulouse's marche de Noel (Christmas market) with Eugenie, our resident Quebecoise.

View from my window.

La Ville Rose at sunset. 

     

     

 

Mot du jour Monday

Link. 

   
     I hope you aren't grumpy with Christmas fast approaching, but grumpy- or grincheux, grognon- is in fact the first word my finger hit in the dictionary. Grincheux has the word 'Grinch' in it, so let's stay away from that and go for the joyeux- happy- part of Joyeux Noel.

Mot du jour...because it's Monday and I remembered.

     Today's word is estival, which means summer. Most of the time you would use ete for summer, but I like the way this word rolls of the tongue. It sounds kinds of Spanish, actually.

     It's starting to get pretty chilly in Toulouse. Even though Louisiana summers are intensely hot, this cold weather always gives me an envie for summer days in New Iberia filled with porch sitting, good books, prosecco, and bare feet. Have a lovely week!

Mot du jour...because I forgot one on Monday.

     Occupé(e) means busy, and I've been quite busy lately with my now full school schedule. Classes are going well as is life in Toulouse. This week alone I've gone to the ballet, made homemade ravioli, gotten my butt kicked at a French exercise class for the first time, and gone to see the Toulouse Christmas market and over 20km worth of lights! I have a few France/French-related posts coming your way soon!

Funny things that have happened in class...

     When you're working with new language learners, there are bound to be some pretty hilarious snafus. The kids that I teach are used to lecture-style learning and copying things down, so they struggle with an entire hour of nothing but me asking them questions.

     Often, these kids just say yes to whatever I ask because they think I will stop pestering them if they say something. Wrong. That's not my job. My job is to pull conversation out of each and every student in my small group, even if it's like pulling teeth. Maybe that's not written in the contract, but that's what I feel to be my purpose at the moment.

     Today, I asked one girl what she had eaten for breakfast. We were working on the preterite, and I wanted to be sure that they said ate- like the number, I told them- not hate. French people have trouble pronouncing "h" and "th" sounds, which can also be funny; try to get one to say "the thistle in the thornbush." Struggle fest. Anyway, the poor girl answered with her name. "What did you eat this morning?" "Louisa!" was her triumphant answer. The class erupted in laughter, and I had to explain cannibalism.

     In the first few classes I taught, I asked my students what stereotypes they have of Americans. My favorite answer: "Americans wake up in the morning, roll over, and there is a hamburger just waiting by their bedside."

In this case the hamburger may just be your bed. 

     My marital status and age are a frequent topic of discussion. Most of my classes thought I didn't speak French at first, so the snippets of conversation that I heard along the way were pretty great. Some young lads were even bold enough to ask for my hand. One fourteen year old asked if I was married, and I said non. He assured me that his mom had given him enough money for us to start a life together, I just had to say oui. He also told me that he plays rugby and is rather muscular for his age. Wow. Who can compete with that?

   

Recent Lesson Plans

      I am officially teaching for a full week for the first time, starting today. Let me just reiterate that my contract with the French government started on October 1st. France definitely works at a different pace than we do in America; if you work with them, eventually things get resolved. Eventually, just not quickly. After some communication snafus, I sorted out a schedule with the third college where I was contracted to work- College Nicolas Vauquelin.

College Nicolas Vauquelin.

     Nicolas Vauquelin (1763- 1829) was a French chemist and pharmacist who discovered Beryllium (Be, atomic number 4). The college is only a five minute walk from the University of Toulouse's Mirail campus. The university is a pretty dismal looking place compared to the beautiful old British universities and their convivial close-knight campus counterparts in America. The same goes for the college, actually. The outside looks more like a prison than a school.

The Universite de Toulouse II- le Mirail. This is an outside shot of one of the main classroom buildings. 

     The teachers at Vauquelin are welcoming, and the kids are pretty easy to work with. After telling the Spanish teacher that I'm from New Iberia, he got very excited and  talked about Cajun music. He sang some Zachary Richard for me to prove how much he loves the Cajun culture. 

     Since I haven't talked about what I've actually been teaching in a while, here are some recent lesson plans:

          -For Thanksgiving I showed most of the classes this video, per another English teacher's suggestion. After the video I reiterated the history of Thanksgiving with a map of Massachusetts and by making sure the students understood the buzz words in the video like pilgrim, Mayflower, Squanto, etc.

                *Next, I asked if anyone knew what Americans eat for Thanksgiving. Pretty much everyone knew about the turkey, but sweet potatoes covered in marshmallows was news to them. Our family doesn't do some of the more traditional Thanksgiving dishes, so I told them about turkducken and oyster dressing- in southern Louisiana we don't have stuffing we have dressing- which also blew their minds. 

                *I showed some short clips of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and with some of the younger classes we made hand turkeys and wrote what we were thankful for in each finger/feather. 

                *I brought along a children's book called a Turkey for Thanksgiving, which I asked the students to read. Middle schoolers hate it when you ask them to do something they consider to be babyish, so they didn't like the idea at first. However, their English level is not strong enough for them to get through more than a 6 sentence page in said children's book, so they stopped complaining pretty quickly.

          -The Presidential Elections proved to be an interesting topic. When I asked my students what had happened on November 6th in America, I got Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Obama! Only a handful of students even considered that anyone but Obama was running for election. They all asked me who I had voted for, to which I replied that not only is that something we Americans like to keep private, it's a matter that should never be discussed in school.

               *To help the kids understand how voting works in America, I showed them a map of the states from the Wall Street Journal with the country's electoral college breakdown and respective red or blue coloring. "Are there only 303 people in America?" I asked. They all looked a little closer at the map, and in each class someone would realize that there was something other than just a popular vote swaying the presidential race. 

               *After explaining that Republicans are red, elephants, and Romney versus the blue, donkey, Democratic Obama, I asked for two volunteers. One person would represent the Elephants and the other the Donkeys in our classroom campaign to decide what should be changed in the school. Non-candidate students each voiced at least one concern with the school- paint color, food quality, homework- and the candidates then picked two or three talking points from the list. With some nudging the students gave a mini-speech on how they would change the school and then waited in the hallway while the voters cast their ballots. For the older kids, I assigned everyone a state to make the electoral college idea more understandable. It was a hit! 

       - I tried to talk about advertising and word association with a couple of classes yesterday, hoping the kids would be able to build their own advertisement. The lesson I planned was a little too complicated, so I changed strategies. Today we played Scattergories, and I allowed the students to work in pairs. They really liked simple word associations, so I whipped out some pictures of football players getting tackled, players rejoicing, and a Snickers ad from Sports Illustrated and asked those same pairs to write down as many words as they knew in each picture with 1 minute on the clock. I explained the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words" too. Another hit! 

     All in all, things are going well. I finally have a set schedule in all three of my schools, and I'm getting better at crowd control. The kids still have private conversations in the middle of class and are generally rowdy, but the few groups that actually pay attention and work give me respite. I will post more about lesson plans and life in France soon!   

Roman baths, Sally Lunn's cinnamon buns, and Bennett Street in beautiful Bath

Roman Baths, the sacred pool, with a few Romans in the background.

     Bath is a difficult city name to explain to the French. "You went to take a bath during Toussaint?" asked one teacher I work with. "No, I went to a city called Bath. In England." Blank stares. "Les bains? (The baths?)" Yep, the old Roman ones in England. Bath, England. Semi-understanding looks. Good enough. 

     Bath was originally called Aquae Sulis and was established as a Roman Baths town due to the discovery of what the Romans deemed "sacred springs." Said springs spring from the ground and are heated from deep within the earth's core. They're still a comfy 90* F, but the bubbles are from a chemical reaction. They're not boiling. I wouldn't jump in though. You can taste these healing waters at the Baths Museum- the museum's content is really geared more towards kids but it's a very well preserved Roman Bath space worth visiting. The water tastes like the water from my high school's fountains. Cade, LA water was orange, tasted way too similar to blood, and may have caused an extra finger or two to sprout from unsuspecting middle schoolers' hands when they misbehaved.

Bath Abbey Church altar.

     In the same square as the Roman Baths Museum is the Abbey Church, pictured above. Three different churches have occupied this spot since 757. Abbey Church presently dates to 1499, and it is known as the last great medieval church built in England. The inside is beautifully adorned with fanned vaulting- a more modern renovation in Victorian Gothic style- and a rare altar backdrop of various scenes from Jesus' life set in stained glass. There was also a lovely exhibition of a woman's needlework and calligraphy in the lefthand ambulatory. Sue Symon's diptychs include hand-written passages from the New Testament in golden calligraphy paired with her artistic interpretations in needlework.

Abbey Church Diptychs. 

   
     My first stop in Bath was to neither the Abbey Church nor the Roman Baths. I went to Sally Lunn's for breakfast before I did anything else. My friend Sarah told me that it was imperative that I go to this famous tea room for the Jane Austen coffee and a cinnamon bun. I love a good cinnamon roll, so why not?

     Sally Lunn was a French Huguenot who sought sanctuary in Bath in 1680. She got a job baking at a Bath tearoom and began making a brioche-like delicacy called the bun. It's a light and airy hamburger bun-looking bread that can be accompanied with sweet or savory toppings. Cinnamon butter is pretty delicious. This Frenchie's bread became so popular, the house and bakery where Sally Lunn worked were renamed in her honor. It's a pretty touristy destination, but the house is adorable and extremely old; it's got a nice lean to it and there are Roman remains beneath the cellar.

The bun. 

The Sally Lunn House. 

     After a bun and some coffee, I toured the Abbey Church and Baths then wandered toward Bath's famous Circus and Crescent town-homes. To the Americans out there, the word "circus" may draw images of elephants and clowns balancing on podiums under a big top to mind. In England a "circus" is a roundabout or large circular/oval plaza. Construction of the Gregorian-style townhouses in the Royal Circus began in 1754 and ended in 1768. Jane Austen fans will be happy to find a Bennett street and a Jane Austen Center on the way to the Circus. Bath is a great destination for fans of this author's work because she not only lived and wrote in Bath, many of her characters pass part of "the season" in Bath seeing and being seen- which is exactly what these town-homes built in the round serve to do in this glamorous city and past retreat for Britain's elite.

Bennett Street letting onto the Circus.

The Circus town-homes.

The Crescent town-homes. 

     If you walk from the Royal Circus toward the royal Crescent you're met with the sweeping view above. The Crescent's town-homes look out over a grassy knoll and a park that was filled with fall foliage on my visit. John Wood the Younger constructed the thirty Gregorian-style town-homes soon after building the Circus, between 1767 and 1774.  Obviously the problems of taxation without representation in the colonies fell on deaf ears in Bath; Bath is a social town, politics are better left to London. 

     The cloudy sky that hung oppressively over my head all day finally opened up and released it's burden around lunchtime. It took it as a sign to seek cover, and the nearest restaurant touted a sign claiming they were voted the Best Lunch in Bath for this year. I didn't try any other restaurants in Bath, but I agree. The Circus Cafe and Restaurant is adorable. I perched myself in the window to do some good old fashioned people watching while eating my fresh fish with butter beans and carrots and drinking my organic cider. This is a locally-sourced eatery with tasty menus that change daily. The Circus Cafe was a great way to end a lovely day, and Bath was a much better alternative to a day in Heathrow.

Fall colors across from the Crescent. 

Mot du jour Monday

     After a wonderful weekend in Paris celebrating Joanna's birthday, it was tough getting back to the grind this morning. Post-Thanksgiving productivity is always a little more difficult than usual thanks to long family meals and tryptophan (even though that's a myth). In France, if you want to say that you ate well/ate a lot, you would say "J'ai bien mange!" I think it's safe to say that most of us ate quite well this weekend and can use this phrase without fault. Happy Monday! Go mange bien encore with those left-overs.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Joyeuse Action de Grace!

Happy Dinde Day!

I love Garfield. Citation.

     I've enjoyed teaching my classes about the history and meaning of Thanksgiving this week. Before I started my lessons, I asked each class why they thought Americans celebrate this particular holiday. Most of them said that we just like to eat turkey, so we decided to make it into a national thing. One student said that it was to celebrate Christopher Columbus' first colony in America. Nice try. Yet another said that it was to thank the Indians for letting Americans into their land. There was no mention of the fact that America was only a colony at that point, and when I first tried to explain pilgrims- by drawing the traditional hat and costume- the kids thought I was talking about a leprechaun.

     After some discussion, I taught them all about the pilgrims, the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, and Squanto. Hopefully some of it sank in, but I'm not overly hopeful. I had some of the classes make hand turkeys and write four things they're thankful this year in each feather. Hand turkeys are ageless, as in they never get old and it doesn't matter how old you are when you make them. I also showed them some videos of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade- which was a new concept for most, but they especially liked this video of New Orleans' own 610 stompers- and we talked about American football. All components of a good Thanksgiving, in my opinion. 

     When you're abroad, you feel the most foreign on days like this. Election day, Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, etc. are holidays that feel like a necessary part of American life, and when everyone around you is going about their day as if nothing was different or special it's a little unnerving. Luckily, I've been able to share the Thanksgiving story with people other than just my students. 

     I just had lunch at a place called Little Mum down the street from my apartment. Since it's so close, I've been quite a few times for lunch. The owner and her son, the chef, are extremely friendly, and they make wonderful salads, soups, and fresh tartes. I'm not entirely sure why we started talking about Thanksgiving, but the little mum wanted to know what the fuss was all about. We talked history and then, more importantly in this case, we talked food. 

     Usually pumpkin is used in dishes that the French would call sale, meaning salty, like soups. When I told her that we eat pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top her eyes lit up. "Can I have the recipe?!" she asked excitedly. It just so happens that my friend found a France-friendly recipe, they don't do canned pumpkin or pumpkin spice, so I was more than happy to oblige. In return for my stories and recipe, I got a little lagniappe of chocolate cake that she hoped I would share with my friends during our feast. That I will, little mum, that I will.

     I didn't get to make a hand turkey of my own in class, so here is what I would have written:
-So far this year, I'm thankful to have graduated from a wonderful institution of higher education with my sanity, wonderful friends whom I miss dearly, connections with the town of Davidson and with Davidson College professors that I hope to maintain for a long time, a great cheerleading career with a great squad, and a diploma full of knowledge and good times. 
-I am also thankful for this whirlwind opportunity that I have to teach the Frenchies a thing or two about English and break some stereotypes they have about Americans. I also get to live in the amazing city of Toulouse, which isn't a bad trade off. 
-I'm thankful for my health and good fortune, and that of my family and friends, and for the many blessings in my life- like the ability to travel and write freely right now. 
-Most importantly, I cannot express how thankful I am for my parents and handsome beau who have seen me through many a trial and tribulation, victory, and small success in this past year. 

     Tonight, I have the pleasure of cooking an American, French, and French Canadian-style Thanksgiving feast with two of the other American assistants. We will also have a Quebecoise who is excited to join in on the fete, and she is actually the one who found a turkey (they're not really "in season" in France until Christmastime). On the menu we have foie gras, prunes with goat cheese and wine sauce, steamed green beans and carrots, aligot- this ridiculously good fondu looking cheesy mashed potato goodness, and pumpkin pie. There's definitely going to be some wine in there as well. I should be able to Skype into my family's Thanksgiving too, so I'll get a twofer. 

     I hope everyone has a wonderful day full of thanks and good eats! Geaux Saints!    

Mot du jour

     Un cerf (une biche) means deer (doe), which is what was served at the first Thanksgiving meal. Also, Benjamin Franklin was a big proponent for making the turkey America's official bird instead of the bald eagle. I just wanted to give you a few things to think on as Thanksgiving approaches. Happy Monday!

Happy Beaujolais-ing!

Campaign poster for this year's Beaujolais. Love the dress! 

     Yesterday, really every third Thursday of November since 1985, the Beaujolais Nouveau was released. Beaujolais is a type of wine- made in the Beaujolais region of France, near Lyon- that is meant to be tasted soon after the harvest (la recolte). In fact, the wine is bottled only 6-8 weeks after harvest. It's very young (nouveau means new), very purple if held against a white surface, kind of fruity, not too intense, and usually served slightly chilled.

     Summer may be over, but wine season has just begun. Thus, the French find occasion to celebrate. In Lyon, wine barrels are rolled into the street, and revelers/ tasters are give the first taste of Beaujolais. There is even a Beaujolais marathon. Some 8,000 runners will take to the small streets of villages and countryside chateaux Saturday morning. There are 13 towns along the route, 9 tasting rooms, and orchestras play in the background. Costumes are encouraged. And here I thought only New Orleans loved day drinking and running in costumes.

     Look for some Beaujolais wherever you may be, and toast to the start of a new season. Hopefully you don't feel as down as the man on the right afterward.

"The Beaujolais Nouveau is here. 'So, this Beaujolais? Does it taste like cherries?' 'No, it tastes like economic crisis.'"