Friday 4/13-Sunday 4/15: A Weekend in Spain

On Friday (4/13) night, Alison came over after she'd finished with classes. I left her with Jessie and I headed over to say goodbye to my folk dance group. They weren't having a dance practice, they were preparing for a fund raiser that they were putting on during the weekend. It was basically a giant BINGO night--but with over 400 people! And they were preparing the snacks that they were planning to sell (crêpes and merveilles)-- I have never seen so much crêpe batter at once! 

Yes, that's all crêpe batter!
I hung out for about 1 1/2 hours (I was only planning to stay for 30 mins, but I got talking and figured that it was my last time with them...) and when I said that I really needed to go because I was already so late for dinner, they whipped out some presents that they had for me! They gave me a dvd of the little program about them that had been on TV (last fall) and a card that was signed by everyone! I was so surprised! As I was standing there, they also handed me a little change purse with their logo on it....and then a bandana with their logo....and then a tiny handmade pair of stilts!! They're about 5 inches tall, but they're just like the real ones! I hadn't really realized that they noticed me so much! It was really nice to feel like they had been excited to have me there--and they said I should find them a performance gig in Oregon so they could come visit me!! 

Most of the folk dance group!

I returned home (and had missed dinner, but they saved some for me!) and spent the evening with Alison and Jessie. In the morning (Sat 4/14), we took the train down to San Sebastian, Spain. Unfortunately, it was gray and rainy. Noooo! We have no luck at all with weather! :(

Ah, Spain.....

Video: Dancing on the wall at the edge of the channel

In a moment of sun!

Luckily we had some halfway decent weather in the afternoon (a tiny bit of sun, but mostly gray and windy), so we wandered around town and hiked up to see Jesus on the hill. When we'd made it back down, we stopped at a tapas bar to have a beer and chat for a while. 

Walls are for climbing...

Jessie found Jesus

Walking around the port

Having a beerBy that point, we were getting hungry for dinner... so, we found a pizzeria where we enjoyed some pizza and sangria.

Jessie and Sangria

Afterwards, we stopped in a bar before meeting up with some other assistants (who happened to be staying at our hostel) in a different bar. Then we all walked together to a pub near to our hostel where we sat around playing a drinking game that I had played before--but without the drinking part! Alison and I headed back to the hostel around 2am, but Jessie went out with the group to another bar where they had dancing. She got in at 4:30am!

One of the bars

Jessie with her strawberry mojito

On Sunday (4/15) we slept in really late and then got some "tortilla" (omelet) and pastry and fresh-squeezed orange juice for breakfast. We sat in the café for a while because it was absolutely POURING and we had some time before we needed to be at the train station. 
When we returned to Tyrosse, I wanted to stop at the folk dance group's BINGO fundraiser--just to see what it was. It was really ironic, though, because it was a Sunday night...I arrived at the train station...then walked over to the covered market...and the folk dance group was there for their BINGO night... it was JUST like the very first night when I arrived in Tyrosse! Except (as they pointed out) I wasn't crying and lost this time! Haha!


Sunday evening we were invited to dinner at Bruno and Françoise's house! It was a lovely dinner party---Ralf, Catherine, Isabelle, Hélène, and Pablo were there as well. We were there for about 5 hours and the conversation was lively and interesting the whole time!

(L-R) Pablo, Catherine, Françoise, Isabelle, Hélène, Natalie, Ralf, Bruno

I will really miss these people. They are all so kind and funny and I feel really comfortable around them now. Perhaps I'll have to come back for a visit... :)

At the end of the night, Bruno and Françoise were nice enough to offer to drop Jessie and I at the Biarritz airport on Monday so we could catch our flight to London.

TO SEE MORE PHOTOS...click here!

Tuesday 4/10-Friday 4/13: Last Week of Teaching

I still can't really believe that I'm all finished teaching. It feels like I'm just on vacation and will surely be back in the classroom in a week or two... However, Friday was my last day. My last week went by really quickly and most of it involved lots of fun things (singing, dancing, and playing games). The students were really sweet and saying goodbye was rather sad.

Jessie in class!

On Tuesday (4/10) I had class with the 3rd graders and Jessie came in to meet them! We did some review and then danced and sang the hokey pokey! Jessie joined in the first time, then took a video of us on our second go. In the afternoon, I taught the two classes of 2nd graders...just some games (we were working on animal vocab) and singing.

        Video:  The Hokey Pokey!

My conversation class students! :)
Then, on Tuesday evening, Jessie and I went to dinner with my conversation class! One of the students hosted us and we all brought along something to share (I made broccoli-cheese savory and pesto bread). It was such a fun evening and I know that Jessie appreciated that they did speak English some of the time! We had the most delicious flan and pastis (a regional specialty cake)--I'm hoping to get the flan recipe! We stayed for about 4 hours, just eating, drinking, and talking!On Wednesday (4/11) it was raining (AGAIN) and we had a nice lie-in (note the British term...that'd be Alison's fault) and then helped Catherine with the grocery shopping. Jessie got a full tour of the supermarket! In the late afternoon, Catherine, Jessie, and I made dinner and dessert while hanging out in the kitchen, listening to music!

Playing with Photobooth on my laptop! 

Thursday (4/12) was my last day with the 3rd graders and when I arrived, over half of them had brought me presents! Most were drawings, but some kids had brought me other things (chocolate, a painting on canvas, and a cool necklace)! They really wanted me to open them in front of the class, so I did--and made sure to show off all their drawings and thank them each. I wrote my address up on the board so that they could copy it down, in case any of them want to write to me (I assured them they would get a reply if they write-- my guess is that none of them actually will). We spent the rest of class singing "Rock Around the Clock" and learning the hand jive. Bruno (who happens to be their teacher) even joined in on the hand jive!! When it was finished, I said goodbye and they started begging me not to go--and telling me I had to come back next year. I attempted to explain how far Oregon is from France, but I don't think they quite understood... 

The 3rd graders!

In the afternoon, I went to my last classes at the other school. They were pretty anti-climactic. I played a game with the little kids and then gave them each a sticker to put on their name tags (which I let them keep). With the older kids I had them glue copies of the penpal letters they'd written (earlier in the term) into their English notebooks and then I let them copy down my address in the off-chance one of them feels like communicating later on. Since it was the last day, I had brought in my laptop and the Twilight dvd and I let them watch the last scene (and pointed out where I was). They were so stoked to finally see me on screen and also to be watching a movie in class! :P  Afterwards I had to give them a few more autographs and then we got their teacher to take an English class photo.

The 2nd graders (at the other school)

The 5th graders (at the other school)


Friday (4/13) was my last day of teaching. I started off the day with my little group of 2nd graders (who I normally have in the afternoon, but their teacher requested I take them in the morning instead) and we got to have a 1 1/4 hour class instead of just 45 minutes. Since we've been learning the names of some animals, I had them draw each of the animals in their books and then write the name of the animal next to each drawing. Some of them were rather good artists!

The 2nd graders

Then I had class with the 4th graders and we spent the first part of class playing a game with telling time. I also taught them "Rock Around the Clock" and the hand jive. They loved it and later (during recess) they came up and had got all the moves! We took a picture together and, as a surprise, they printed it and put it into a frame they'd made with each of their names on it! They gave it to me later in the afternoon and I was so surprised!

The 4th graders

I ate lunch at school and stopped in at the cafeteria to see how it worked. I realized that despite having been here for 7 months, I had never gone in to see the cafeteria! So, I spent a few minutes talking with the kids who were eating and checking out how it worked. Basically they have no choice on what food they get--it's just served to each table and they are supposed to eat some of each course. Yes, they have courses--even for school lunch! And here they are much healthier than the US!
In the afternoon I stayed at school to work on copying and sorting all the worksheets I'd made over the course of the year. I wanted to leave a notebook for the next assistant that has all my worksheets and song cd (in order). I also left all the children's books that I had brought with me. 
My very last class was with Duyen's 2nd graders...they are the sweetest class. We reviewed the animals and then I showed them some newspapers and American money that I'd brought. I also had a penny to give to each child, which they were thrilled about! (I showed the newspapers and money and gave pennies to all my other classes as well) 

LouAnn shows off a dollar

Zelie and Hugo with the dollar

Then we took a picture and they informed me that they had a surprise for me... It turns out that Duyen had had them each draw a picture (most were of me teaching them!) and write a little note (in French). Then they had bound it into a little book! It was so so adorable! The Spanish students had made one for Pablo and we had a little party all together (Duyen had brought cake)! At the end the kids got to take turns saying what they liked best about their language classes. I didn't cry, but it was close! 

Duyen's 2nd grade class

Before leaving, I stopped into the staff room to hang out a bit and say goodbye to the teachers. I got their emails, so hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch! It hasn't sunk in that I won't be going back there...

Saturday 4/7-Monday 4/9: Celebrating Easter

On Saturday, I woke up still sick. How is it possible for me to be sick AGAIN!?!?!! Sigh. Due to the horrible weather, Jessie and I slept in and lounged around in the morning. Then, in the afternoon, we went to watch Margot's handball match. They played better than last week, but ended up losing again.

There was a folk dance performance planned for Saturday night and I really, really wanted to go--but I was feeling so sick. I had no energy and was just lying on my bed reading. So, I can't say I was too sad when I got the call saying that the performance was canceled due to rain. It's a bummer that I didn't get to perform with them, but probably just as well because even standing up was taxing for me.

Instead, Jessie and I just hung out with the family all evening, watching "The Voice." The show is nothing special, but what was fun was hanging out and chatting and joking around. Ralf was in a hilarious mood and we were all having so much fun--in French and English!

On Easter we slept in late and were having breakfast as the Bergfelds left for a baptism and party which would last all day. Jessie and I relaxed for a bit and then drove over to Capbreton to pick up Alison and go to Emmanuelle's house. She had invited us for lunch dessert, so we arrived at 2pm and hung out with her and her daughter, Luna.

Photo: Emmanuelle serves dessert

It was fun to just relax and talk (although Jessie was probably a bit bored because we were talking in French most of the time) and Luna (who is 5) was hilarious! She had a ribbon and was using it as a bracelet, necklace, or hairband to decorate each of us in turn!

Photo: Luna dressing up Jessie...

We ended up going to the beach, but Emmanuelle and Luna didn't stay long (Luna was tired).

Photo: Beaching on Easter

Alison, Jessie, and I hung out for a while at the beach and then headed back to Alison's apartment until it was time for dinner. We decided to go out to dinner at the pizza place (where we went previously) and it was delicious! Jessie and Alison got goat cheese & honey pizzas and I got a margherita (but I traded Jessie for one slice). Mmm!

Photo: PIZZA DINNER!

Photo: Dessert...chocolat croquant!

Photo: EASTER SWEETS!

Sunday night Alison spent the night at my house and we stayed up until 2am talking and watching funny youtube videos.

Photo: Jessie and Francesca celebrate another Easter together in Europe! :)

We slept in the next morning and ended up being invited for Easter Monday lunch at Chantal's house. We sat around for a few hours chatting with the whole family (well, the kids played outside--miraculously it was sunny for once!) and had a tasty meal of asparagus, bean stew, (lamb for the meat-eaters) and strawberries with whipped cream for dessert!

Jessie and I shared the jelly beans and Cadbury eggs that she had brought from the US...along with PEEPS! And, oddly enough, they liked the Peeps! WHAT??

Photo: Claire and a friend are excited for Peeps

Photo: Alison tentatively tastes a Peep...

Photo: Easter Lunch

Photo: Warming up the eggs...

I was still feeling sick, so I ended up napping a bit while Alison and Jessie hung out. Then we had tea and decided to color the eggs that I had hard-boiled that morning.

Unfortunately we hadn't managed to find white eggs, so the colors didn't show up so well on the brown eggs.

Photo: Jessie shows off her eggs

But we still had fun coloring them with Margot (who had never done it before because they don't do that here)!

Photo: Our egg family

Photo: All colored out!

In the early evening, Alison, Jessie, and I hid chocolate eggs all over the yard for the kids to find. Margot did by far the best (24/40 mini eggs), but they were all fairly lousy at finding them. I think Catherine doesn't normally hide them in very tricky places like we did! In the end they managed to find them all (with only a teeny bit of help) and we headed inside for dinner.

It was a fun, chocolate-filled Easter!

For more pictures:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150655701978587.387130.561318586&type=3&l=db30a59a32

Monday 4/2-Friday 4/6: Goodbye CM2s!

This was my last week with the 5th grade (CM2) classes. They will be gone all next week on a field trip, so I won't get to see them. On Monday I had Hélène's class and we just played a game and then I turned on some music so we could dance.

Photo: Hélène's class (CM2)

First we did the YMCA (which they really got into) and then I taught them the hand jive so we could dance to "Rock Around the Clock." That was a lot of fun! When the teacher came back into the room at the end, I had her take a picture of us. I'm going to miss those kids!!!

Between classes, I drove to the hospital in Dax to get my Yellow Fever vaccination. The doctor was really nice and gave me all the info I need and, although I had to pay 30 euros for the shot, he didn't make me pay for the visit (normally 25 euros!). That was great!

On Tuesday I had my last class with Claude's students and we did pretty much the same thing: played a game and then sang and danced. I wrote my address in Corvallis up on the board and told them that if they sent me a letter (in French or English), I would for sure write them back. :)

Photo: Claude's class (CM2)

Wednesday afternoon I went to the cinema with Margot and Claire to see "Marsupilami"! It's a film based off a classic French comic book and it was super cute!

Photo: MARSUPILAMI!!

In the evening, I drove to the Biarritz airport to pick up JESSIE!! She arrived at 7:50pm, but I made sure to go early because I didn't want to be late due to getting lost or traffic or something (like when I went to pick up Crystal). Her flight was right on time and I was so so excited to see her come walking out!! I was all prepared for her arrival, bringing some French chocolate to welcome her!

When I tried to drive out of the parking lot, I stuck my ticket into the machine and waited for the gate to open......but it didn't. Then I realized that you only get 30 minutes of free parking, but since I had arrived early (unlike last time), I had been there for longer than 30 mins! I got my money out to pay, but the machine only took FRENCH credit cards. Which I don't have. hmm.

So, I backed up into the parking lot and we went back into the airport where (after I'd asked at the info desk) I was pointed to the machines inside for paying with cash... hehe. We did eventually make it back home!

Photo: This WELCOME sign was waiting for Jessie (courtesy of Margot), along with a packet of candy! "Have nice days here!"

On Thursday, Jessie rested at home while I taught my classes. When I'd finished, we took a walk through town and in the woods (while it wasn't raining).

Photo: Jessie reading Hunger Games...she finished the series!

Photo: On our walk, we (of course) stopped by the monkey bars!

Photo: Jessie in front of les Arènes!

During the night on Thursday, I started feeling really crappy. By the time it was morning, I knew that my yellow fever shot was taking effect. The doctor had told me that 4-5 days after the shot, it was likely I'd have some fever symptoms. Ugh.

Friday was my last class with Emmanuelle's students--and we did pretty much the same thing I did with the other two classes. They were really sweet, though, and had made me a big card with cool drawings and a cute message written (mostly) in English.

Photo: Emmanuelle's class (CM2)

We did lots of singing and dancing and then showed Emmanuelle and the Spanish students when they came back at the end of our class. I'm going to miss all those kids so much!!

Jessie and I had lunch at the school because the teachers had planned a potluck to say goodbye to us language assistants. They told Pablo and I not to bring anything, just come and eat!

Photo: Enjoying some Gâteau Basque

It was great--and just sitting around talking with them made me think of the first time I had lunch in the staff room. I feel so comfortable now! They are all so nice and I have so much fun joking around with them. I cannot even imagine that I won't be seeing them anymore... It's not sinking in.

Photo: (L->R) Laurence, Emmanuelle, Me, Duyen

At the end of the lunch, they took out a bag each for Pablo and I--a going-away present! They gave me a long-sleeved shirt and an apron (because I bake all the time!) with things on them written in Gascon (the language that used to be spoken in this area). So kind of them!!

Photo: Laureline, Me, & Hélène

In the afternoon, Pablo and I were invited to stop by Hélène's class so they could say goodbye. And they had made us little books that had a drawing and message from each student! And the messages are absolutely adorable! And Claude's class had made a little card for me that was signed by all the kids. I feel loved!! :)

On Friday night, Jessie and I went to folk dancing after dinner. It was an "everyone" night, so the really good stilt dancers were there! They are always pretty incredible--especially when they are jumping over people! I was still feeling sick, but I danced for a while. Then I sat with Jessie and was entertained by the four little girls who were crowded around her, trying to practice their very basic English! It was hilarious!

Sunday 4/1: Poisson d'Avril!!!

This morning I participated in a walk to raise money for a cardiology organization. The folk dance group had announced it last week and said that one could either participate walking normally...or on stilts! So, I decided to give it a try. And it was so much fun! The advanced group did a 6km walk and the beginners (me included) walked 2km through the woods.

This morning was overcast, but it was still really beautiful walking through the woods. And, despite there being many roots, sandy patches, and other misc obstacles--I didn't fall! Thank goodness! I am so excited to make myself a pair of stilts (with bigger platforms for my feet because my toes hang over the front of these ones) when I get home! And then I'll really start training!!

This afternoon I went to an artisan's market in Tyrosse with Catherine and Margot. There were some really cool things--and quite the variety! We saw blown glass jewelry, handmade baskets (we got to chat with the man who was making them...a real character!), cosmetics made from donkey milk (we met the donkey), made-to-order corsets, incredible chocolate displays, custom teddy bears, and much more! I didn't buy anything, but I did a lot of free looking.

Tonight for dessert we had strawberries and whipped cream.....summer is coming!!

*Although today is "Poisson d'Avril" (or, "April Fool's Day"), I didn't really do anything. Yep, it's the first year in a while that I haven't cut out paper fishes and stuck them to people or their belongings (as is the French tradition). Maybe it's because I'm actually in France now and no one else was really doing anything... oh well!

Friday 3/30: More Teaching!!

I wanted to put up two more videos from my classes...

The first one is from one of my 2nd grade classes. They are learning the question, "How are you?" and many possible responses. They adore this song--especially because they get to act out all the different emotions!

The second video is from my 4th grade class. They really got a kick out of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!" (the video was taken by the teacher on her phone)