Wednesday 3/28: More Beaching

Today I slept in really late (probably because I couldn't get to sleep last night for some reason...) and was back in bed reading when Catherine called to say that her afternoon class had been canceled and we could go to the beach earlier! We had planned to go at 3pm, but instead she wanted to go with Chantal at 1:30pm. So, I went to pick up Alison in Capbreton so she could come to the beach with us (as we were headed to a different beach than the one in her town). Unfortunately there was construction on the road to Capbreton and the detour sent me off in some other direction... I had a fun time trying to figure out how to get around to Capbreton. Luckily I was able to get there (although it took twice as long) and then we took the "Route National" on the way home.

Once again it was a beautiful day! We met up with Chantal and Claire (and some of their friends) at the beach in Seignosse and relaxed on our towels, reading. After a while, I got pretty warm and Margot wanted to go boogie-boarding, so I joined her! Yes, the water was a bit chilly, but not too bad. And we rode the waves for about 45 minutes before it was time to go home.

After tea-time, Catherine brought Alison and I into town so we could look for sunglasses. She told us that if we wanted to get good ones that would actually protect our eyes from the sun, we should go to the shops on main street. I was really planning to get a pair (I've never had one...but that never seemed to matter much in Oregon...), but the cheapest we could find was 30€! Apparently that's a good deal here (most of the other ones were between 80€-130€), but I really couldn't imagine spending that much. I told them that I needed to think about it, but I'm just going to live a little longer without sunglasses. I've been okay thus far...

Alison and I went to the grocery store so I could do the shopping for Catherine. Then, after dinner, I drove Alison back home. It's so weird to have it be light until 9:30pm! I was driving back from Capbreton and it was still light! I actually really enjoy bring Alison home because the Basque radio station plays classical music after 9pm and I get to listen to it while driving through the beautiful countryside! It always makes me think of my Grandpa because I remember he always had the classical radio station playing at home...

It hit me tonight that Jessie is going to be here in Tyrosse in ONE WEEK. What?! I cannot believe how quickly the time is flying by. I always thought "Jessie won't be here until the very end of my time here"---well, here it is. Despite having been homesick at first, I am really happy here now. It's very comfortable and I have really gotten to know people here. It's going to be hard to leave.

When I was leaving Oregon last September, who would have thought I'd end up saying that?

Saturday 3/24-Tuesday 3/27: A Visit from Crystal!

On Saturday, I woke up to bright blue skies, sun, and 70℉ weather! I went running and then spent a few hours reading out on the lawn chair by the pool. It was really warm! Crystal (*who is from Oregon, but is currently studying at the University of Glasgow) wasarriving at the airport in Biarritz at 4:50pm, so Catherine and I had planned to pick her up. However, Catherine was busy and said that it would be better if she just drew me a map and I would drive there by myself. Eep. I agreed, but was pretty nervous (as I'd never driven on the highway here). Apparently I had good reason to be nervous.....I got lost twice on the way there and ended up arriving at 5:30pm. Oops. Luckily I found Crystal (who was--thank goodness--still waiting for me) and we had no trouble finding our way back to Tyrosse.

We slept in on Sunday and then walked over to the school garage sale. There were so many people there! I was surprised how many vendors were there and I saw quite a few students. The only thing I purchased was a copy of "The Thief Lord" for 1€. At 1pm, Catherine, Crystal, and I headed to Capbreton to pick up Alison and go to the beach!

Photo: A morning walk through Tyrosse

Photo: Picnic at the beach!

It was so HOT! We had a picnic lunch and then relaxed on our towels, reading. Crystal was reading "The Hunger Games," since I have the copies and she'd never read them. It got so warm that eventually we couldn't help but head for the water!

Photo: SWIMMING!

Crystal and I swam for a while (apparently the water was about 55℉...warm for us, but too cold for the locals) and then went back to dry off. Catherine had to leave at 3:30pm, but Crystal and I didn't want to go back that soon. We had decided to just walk home later...it's approx 8.5 miles, but we figured that we could do it in a little over 2 hours.

We stopped to change at Alison's house (which is 1.5 miles from the beach) before striking out on foot. It was the perfect temperature and we had fun walking and chatting.

Photo: On our walk

However, after we had walked about 1.5 miles, a car honked at us and then pulled over. The driver (an elderly man) rolled down his window and asked if we wanted a ride. I asked where he was going and it turned out that he was headed to Tyrosse!

So, we got in the car and hoped that all would be well. He was very nice and talked the whole way (and had a really strong accent, which was exciting because I couldn't always understand what he was saying). It was very nice of him to offer to take us and he kept saying how he hated to see people walking and that he figured we didn't dare hitchhike. Well, now I've done it!

Photo: Before getting a ride...

On Monday, I had to teach early...so Crystal stayed in bed and read "The Hunger Games." By the time I had returned from class (where we worked on telling time), she had finished the first Hunger Games book. So, I grabbed the next book off the stack and handed it to her. I had some work to do before we could go out and wander around, so Crystal kept reading...

Then we headed out in search of some pastries! We ended up buying mini Gâteaux Basques and eating them in the sun, in front of the church. It was relaxing and delicious!

Photo: Enjoying her Gâteau Basque

Photo: A post-Gâteau Basque smile... :)

Then we stopped at the train station where we had to wait for 10 minutes while a Portuguese lady (who didn't really understand French) tried to buy a train ticket from Tyrosse to Lisbon--which, apparently, isn't actually possible. While we waited, we started talking about The Hunger Games...and after a few minutes, I realized that Crystal wasn't reading the 2nd book. She was, in fact, reading the 3rd book. Oops! Apparently when I had grabbed the next book off the stack, I didn't check to make sure which one I had handed her! And the stack wasn't in order... So, she had just read 200 pages of the 3rd book, without having read the 2nd one! I felt so bad! No wonder she was so confused!

When we got home, I gave Crystal the 2nd book and (after lunch) we biked over to the other school. Crystal found a nice patch of grass outside to lie in and read while I went to teach. The classes went okay today. The younger kids' class was only 18 minutes long because (as always) it takes so long for them to come in from lunch recess. Oh well! I'm done worrying about that. And with the older kids we are trying to finish up our replies to the Oregonian pen pals. They should be finished on Thursday, I hope! As the kids were leaving, one of the boys strolled out repeating "Je suis un rabbit. Je suis un rabbit. Je suis un rabbit. Je suis..." ("I am a rabbit") over and over. I am unsure why he was saying this, but I had a lot of trouble not bursting out laughing!

I had to teach one more class at the school next to me, so I left Crystal once again to her book. My class went really well--I had them review their numbers by playing a game that they all got really into. At the end, the winning team got pizza stickers (that actually smell like pizza) and they were super stoked (thanks, Jessie, for the stickers!!).

Crystal managed to finish the 2nd book and had moved on to finishing the 3rd book by this point. And, I might point out that each of these books are around 400 pages. She managed to finish the last one during the afternoon. Pretty impressive!

Photo: The Hunger Game trilogy...read in 2 days by Crystal.

We took Dunja for a long walk through the woods, stopping (of course) to play on the monkey bars! I went barefoot for most of the walk, which was lovely. I just don't go barefoot as much here, but it's so nice to feel the earth beneath my feet!

Photo: A walk in the woods

After dinner, Catherine, Crystal, Margot, and I watched "Little Miss Sunshine"! I love that movie! Crystal and Margot had never seen it before. Unfortunately it didn't have French subtitles, so we just had to translate for Margot. Everyone liked it.

Today (Tuesday), Crystal had to leave to go back to Glasgow. I'm so glad that she was able to come for a visit--even if it wasn't very long. And so lucky that we had such nice weather!

Photo: Saying goodbye at the train station

I taught my normal classes today (we just started The Body with the class of 8-9 yr olds and they are learning to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes") and during my break in the afternoon, I read on the patio. It's amazing how much it feels like summer! I had my conversation class tonight and we discussed the elections. They described how the elections in France work and then I attempted to describe how the elections work in the US. I had some trouble explaining electoral votes, etc. I need to look it up and re-explain it next class. It's just a bit confusing! However, one interesting thing that I learned about French elections: the government gives 150,000€ to each candidate for their campaign! They fundraise the rest.

The pictures in this post are courtesy of Crystal! :)

Teaching Videos

Singing "BINGO" (with the CE2 students at l'École des Arènes!)

Conversations between Tiger and Monkey (with the CE1 students at l'École des Arènes)

Friday 3/16: Carnaval à l'École des Arènes!

On Friday we celebrated Carnaval at the school next to me. It was excellent! Since I spend a lot more time at this school (and teach 7 classes here, as opposed to two at the other school), I know the kids a lot better.

Photo: Getting dressed up... Catherine did Margot's make up: a black eye, a scar, and a bloody bandage!

Photo: With some of my 7-8 year old students!

It was great to see them all dressed up and to have a few hours to just hang out with them and the other teachers. It started in the playground where we gathered to wait until everyone was ready.

While we waited, the kids played and some of them had brought bags of confetti, which they threw on people (quite often the teachers...) until the ground was multi-colored.

Photo: CONFETTI!!

Photo: Emmanuelle's 5th grade class

Once everyone was ready, we paraded down the streets of town--getting many strange looks from the drivers going past who must have wondered why kids were dressed up in mid-March (Carnaval is in February...). Some of the kids had maracas and tambourines and many of them were singing. Video: Parading down the street...

We made a stop out in front of the pre-school, so that the little kids could see the costumes and listen to a few songs, sung by the older kids. Then we returned to the school where there was a feast (crêpes and other cakes which had been made by parents and brought into the school) and music and plenty of time to run around like crazy kids.

Photo: One of the two tables of food! And it was completely cleaned out in under an hour! Video: Mmmm...Crêpe time! :-)

I dressed up as a hippie and was asked many times what that was (even though some of the kids were dressed up as hippies...) and I also got a lot of comments on my 5-fingers running shoes. No one could believe that I use them to go running ("What?! Not tennis shoes?!") It was a wonderful afternoon!

Monday 3/12-Thursday 3/15

This week my teaching went pretty smoothly overall. With the youngest kids I've been working on the weather and school vocab. They are adorable when trying to say "What's the weather like?" and they keep getting rainy and windy mixed up (probably because they pronounce "rainy" as "wainy").

With the 8-9 year olds we're also working on school vocab and we've been reviewing the alphabet. They love to take turns standing up and reciting the alphabet for me (although many of them still get mixed up on the pronunciation of letters G-K...). I've been teaching the 9-10 year olds body vocab and we had a blast singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" again on Monday. I didn't have a second class with them this week because they were on a field trip. With the oldest kids, I have been working on telling time and saying what time they did things during the day (I go to school at 8:30am, I eat dinner at 7:30pm, etc.) and I sent out their penpal letters on Wednesday. I really doubt that I'll still be here by the time the letters come back, but Claude is going to continue them without me.

On Tuesday night, Alison stayed over and we stayed up late watching the Harry Potter musical. :)

On Wednesday we made chocolate chip cookies and then went to the beach with Margot.

However, when we arrived in Capbreton, it was gray, cloudy, and a bit chilly. Eep! We put our towels out on the sand and lied down anyways... and after about 15 minutes the sun began to peek through... and another 15 minutes later the sky was blue and the sun was out!

Photo: Hoping for sun...

Margot and I played frisbee for a while (avoiding the huge dump truck that kept bring loads of sand across the beach and dumping it into a huge pile...we weren't sure why) and then decided to go put our feet in the water.

Photo: Playing Frisbee!

Photo: Free entertainment (the dump truck got stuck in the sand at one point and everyone on the beach was watching it attempt to free itself!)

It was still pretty cold, but not as bad as typical Oregon Pacific water temperature!

Margot and I stripped down to our bathing suits and waded in a little further...Alison offered to take pictures and stayed out of the water. ;)

Well, after a relatively short time, we were both all the way in! It was quite cold, but once you got numb, it felt great!!!!

Photo: SWIMMING! IN MARCH!

When we finally decided to get out, we dried off on the beach and then went to buy some treats: chocolate ice cream for me, churros (deep-fried strips of dough) dipped in warm nutella for Alison and Margot! YUM!

Photo: Enjoying their snack...

Photo: Wall-Jumping!

We stayed until 5pm and then headed home (stopping to drop Alison off at her apartment).

For more beach pictures, check out this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2787432092226.2113921.1451010052&type=1&l=d2129771b5

On Thursday night for dessert, we had fresh strawberries and whipped cream. There's nothing better than the first strawberries of the year! Mmm!

The weekend: Saturday 3/10-Sunday 3/11

This weekend, the twins have their German friends here. They are part of an exchange program at school which sends the French students to Germany for 10 days and then the German students come here for 10 days! Since they stay at their school during the week, they'll only be here for the weekend...which is kinda nice since I'm sharing a bathroom with them all. :p

Yesterday (Saturday) we all went to lunch in Hossegor, at the coast.

Photo: My lunch--A salad with grilled goat cheese and a Roquefort flan...which I gave to Ralf, as I'm not a huge fan.

After lunch we took a nice walk on the beach (well, the boys headed off to do their own thing) and I ended up doing handstands and cartwheels with Margot and her friend, Lou-Anne.

Photo: My Host Family!

It was such a lovely day (about 60 degrees) and I am so looking forward to when it gets a little bit warmer so we can go swimming! You see, I wouldn't mind swimming right now (because already it's better than in Oregon), but here they aren't really used to having to be numb to go swimming...so we'll just wait a little longer! :)

Photo: My cartwheel buddies

On Saturday night I got to skype with a bunch of my family as my Grandma, Aunt Barbara, Aunt Sally, and Uncle Ed were all over at my house for breakfast! It was so wonderful to get to catch up with everyone and to SEE them! I even managed to get a few pictures! :)

Photo: Beautiful people who I miss!

On Sunday I picked Alison up in Capbreton in the early afternoon and brought her back so she could be here for the rugby match between France and England.

Everyone was really excited about it (Margot and Catherine painted their faces with blue, white, and red) and we all watched the match together. England ended up winning (Alison was thrilled, everyone else was super bummed...I didn't care much either way) by two points, 24-22.

Photo: Watching the game--you can see the expressions on the French fans... Alison's thumbs-up is just popping in at the bottom of this picture

After the game, I spent the next few hours making pizzas (with the help of Catherine and moral support of Alison)--it ended up taking quite a while in a oven that only works on the top... But, in the end we had three large pizzas, three smaller pizzas, and one small loaf of pesto bread! Everyone loved the homemade "American" pizza and it all was eaten (except the bread, which we're saving for dinner on Tuesday)!

Photo: Enough pizza for an army (and apparently we had an army here...there aren't any leftovers!)

Teaching... Monday 3/5-Friday 3/9

This week at school I've been working with the 5th graders on their penpal letters with the American kids. Those letters (from the US) are pretty much the most hilarious things I've ever read! I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time...

Photo: "I almost forgot I am asian"

In any case, the teaching went well this week and I'm feeling confident about it now. Perhaps that's because I was only teaching at the school next to me and it's the other school that gives me a lot of trouble... Oh well!

On Thursday I went to the other school because they were celebrating Carnaval (a little late, yes... they had to postpone it due to bad weather). So, instead of teaching, I just hung out (dressed up like a hippie) and helped the teachers when I could.

Photo: Some of my CE1 students

Photo: Some of my CM2 students

All the kids were dressed up in costumes--it was pretty much like Halloween in the US. They all lined up and we had a little parade down the streets--and through the huge supermarket!

Photo: Parading (I love the forest around here!)

Photo: Five Spidermans and a Buzz Lightyear...

Photo: "Saint-Pansard"

Then returned to the school where the 5th graders read out a list of the bad things they were blaming on "Saint-Pansard" and then they burned the version of him that they had made. It was pretty epic, really.

Photo: The burning "Saint-Pansard"... they even put some fireworks inside of him!

After that we all went to the playground and had crêpes that the parents had made. There were plates and plates of crêpes, along with some other traditional cakes. Mmm!

Photo: One of the three tables of treats!

Wednesday 2/29-Sunday 3/4

Mark and I relaxed for the next three days (Wed-Fri), playing some basketball, doing a lot of laundry, and playing cards with Margot.

Photo: Mark and I bought Margot a new basketball!

Photo: Playing Palace

On Friday we went to the beach in Capbreton!

We were lucky to have lovely weather and we took advantage of it to spend a little bit of time on the beach.

Photo: In Capbreton

Photo: Rocking the red shorts

Photo: We got ice cream!!

We didn't get to stay too long, though, because we wanted to make it back in time to see Margot's tennis match .

She's really good! Way better than I am!

We took the overnight train up to Paris on Friday night and arrived at 7am on Saturday (3/3). Since we had a little bit of time until the Mac store opened, we walked all the way there from the train station! The guys at the Mac store were really nice and (after instructing me to go to the store across the street and purchase a new hard drive) agreed to install my new hard drive for free! So kind of them!!

We spent the afternoon wandering the Père Lachaise cemetery with Laura, a friend I met when I was studying in Angers! She's also doing the Teaching Assistant program, so we decided to meet up for the afternoon!

Photo: Laura and I at Père Lachaise

We had fun seeing all the quirky gravestones and chatting as we wandered through the super confusing "streets" between all the graves.

Photo: Mark in front of Jim Morrison's grave

Then, later, we met up with Candice (and her two cousins, who were visiting from the US) and we all had lunch at a little café.

Our last day in Paris (Sunday, 3/4) we finally had bad weather. The whole rest of our trip was blessed with amazing weather, but finally the rain hit.

Photo: Our hotel refrigerator for our picnic food...

So, we just hung out a lot and ended up ordering pizzas and watching some movies (that we had planned to watch together during the trip, but up until then my computer had been broken, so we'd been unable to do so). It was nice to just relax as we done so much walking the day before.

I said goodbye to Mark at the airport on Monday morning and he spent the next 24 hours getting all the way back to Sacramento. I spent the next 5 hours hanging out in Paris, waiting for my 5 hour train back to Tyrosse. I was so exhausted (and sad) by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and pass out. Well, it turned out that Ralf's favorite soccer team was playing that night, so there were a whole bunch of people over to watch the match! Catherine had made chili and everyone was hanging out. I managed to hang out for a little bit (and eat some delicious chili) before saying goodnight and heading up to bed!

Saturday 2/25-Tuesday 2/28

On Saturday (2/25), Mark and I took a train to Bayonne (where we had two hours to kill, so we toured around a little bit--making sure to get a Gâteau Basque for Mark to taste!), then another train to Lourdes (where we had one hour to kill...we just sat at the train station), and a bus up into the Pyrénées to a little town called Cauterets.

Photo: The village of Cauterets

Catherine's family owns a flat in an old hotel there (it's absolutely gorgeous) and they invited us to go stay there with them.

Photo: The Hotel

When we arrived, everyone had recently gotten back from a long day of skiing and they were planning to go out to a favorite restaurant for dinner.

Of course we went along! We were a huge group: the Bergfelds (5), Chantal's family (6), Pierre's friend, Jules, and Isabelle with her baby, Alexandre...17 people! Luckily the restaurant was prepared (apparently they go there every year) and we all tucked in to a massive dinner of fondue or raclette! Mark and I chose fondue and ate until we were ready to explode! It was so delicious!!!!!

Photo: Delicious Dinner!

The next day we rented some shorter skis and went to the Pont d'Espagne (about halfway up the mountain) with Isabelle and Alexandre. They were planning to go sledding and we were headed to the green slope.

Photo: Pont d'Espagne

Photo: Yes, I am wearing a green gumdrop suit...

I had no problem getting back into skiing (I'd gone two days when I was younger). It was really fun to be out in the snow and it was actually really warm and sunny!

It was Mark's very first time on skis, so that was quite a challenge.

He had some painful tumbles before lunch, but after lunch he kept trying and ended up feeling a lot more confident by the end of the day!

Photo: At Pont d'Espagne

On Monday (2/27) I left in the morning with Ralf, Margot, Hugo, and Lucas and we took the cable cars waaaay up to the top of the mountains! I had borrowed Chantal's skis, so they were quite a bit longer than the ones I'd skied with the day before...

Photo: Ralf and Margot on a lift

After we'd gone down a green, we took the ski lift all the way to the very top of the slopes. The view from up there was incredible!

Photo: The view at the top

But then we had to get down. I said I was up for trying the blue slopes, so we headed down. I, not surprisingly, fell three times on the first slope (one of my skis coming off two of the times), but after I became more adapted to the steeper, narrower slopes and longer skis, I did okay! I didn't fall much after that and it was so exciting! (And, at times, terrifying!)

Photo: Mark and Catherine coming in from the slopes

Mark arrived around lunchtime with Catherine and she gave him a few lessons on skiing (how to turn and how to stop). After lunch, Margot and I skied with Mark for a while and he was so much better! He didn't fall at all and he was a lot more confident with his turning. He stayed on the lower slopes to practice for a while and I went back up to the top to ski with the whole group (Isabelle had arrived as well).

Photo: Up at the top!

It was fun getting to watch the kids go on the ski jumps (not that they did anything particularly fancy, but they loved having us as the audience) and I went down a few red slopes as well! (Here they have four levels: Green, Blue, Red, Black)

Photo: OH YEAH!!!

At 4:30pm, Ralf and I headed down to meet up with Mark and take the cable car back down to the town. We were all exhausted!

That evening we just relaxed and played a bunch of cards with Margot, Catherine, and Isabelle.

Photo: Playing Cards!

Photo: Dinnertime

Tuesday (2/28) we headed back to Tyrosse, but this time we got a ride from Isabelle! It was nice to avoid the 5 hours by train, as it only takes 2 hours by car because there are no lay-overs.

To see more pictures from our trip to Cauterets, check out this album:

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