I'm Home!

I am back in the USA!  Just wanted to let everyone know that I am here safely.  I will update again soon with the ins and outs of my trip.

So long, farewell, and now I say adieu....

Yes, for those of you who are confused, I don't leave France until tomorrow. However, I am leaving Nantes in 4 hours to head to Paris for my flight tomorrow morning. Yesterday I spent my day saying goodbyes and packing. Each bag is 49 lbs...it will be interesting navigating my way through the train station and airport with the huge luggage I have! Anyway, I met up with some of the remaining assistants to say goodbye and then I met up with some teachers from La Herdrie to say bye. Unfortunately, I did not get to stay very long but it was nice seeing them one last time.

The harder departures were saved for today. I already said goodbye to Marco's mom. We ate lunch together today and said bye after that. She wrote me a little note and gave me some cool souvenirs to bring back with me. It was difficult to say the final 'au revoir' just because she was such a huge part of my experience here in France. Next on the list of goodbyes is the cat (a little less difficult but I hope she isn't too crushed that she won't get her nightly Babara time!). But most importantly, I have to say bye to Marco. It's always very hard but it seems like it is a part of our relationship. We are both looking forward to the day when it will be no longer necessary! 4 hours until I have to climb over that obstacle....

Well, this is my last post from France. I'll keep you all updated about my life for awhile upon my return. Maybe I'll even be able to tell most of you in person :).

See you soon USA!

The Beginning of the End....

I think I can officially say that this is the end of my stay in France. I have 2 full days left in Nantes (I will spend the night on Wednesday in Paris for my Thursday morning flight) before heading back to the good ole US of A. Bittersweet is the only way of describing my imminent departure. Leaving Marco and his family behind will be incredibly difficult and emotional, but seeing the US, my family and friends will be oh-so-sweet. When I get sad about the end of this stage of my life, all I have to think about is all that is awaiting me when I return and I feel better (well...most of the time I do!). In all reality, I do my best to just not think about it at all, in order to regulate my emotions and not seem manic to those around me!

So, what now? Upon my return, I will start working for the Rohrer's again as well as settling back to being in the US and at home. My plan is to be very busy as soon as possible to make life seem 'normal,' in hopes of having a smoother transition. I have a decent amount of things to do when I get back: a haircut (the first in 9 months!), welcome home party on the 22nd with my GCC friends (which I am really looking forward to), work, hanging out with family, unpacking, helping my mom re-decorate, searching for an apartment in Philly, a sign language course, getting things ready for Bethany and Josh's wedding (I am doing their flowers) etc. In August, I will move to Philadelphia to start my studies and assistantship at Eastern University to be a School Psychologist. Another three years of school seems a little daunting, but I am really looking forward to being back in the learning environment as well.

As for Marco, he currently has an internship in Nantes which he will be finishing up mid-fall. He is starting to look for a job in the US in hopes of joining me after his internship. He wasn't able to find an internship in the US after months of searching, so I am hoping that finding a job doesn't have the same result. We are trying to be optimistic! In any case, he will come to visit at the end of fall/beginning of winter. We are hoping to see each other again in the 3 to 5 month time frame. Oh, yes... back to long distance!

Well, hopefully I answered the basic questions that many of you have asked me recently. Of course if you have more questions, ask away!

In the mean time, I am going to enjoy my last 2 days in my home away from home.... a bientot!

Brittany/Normandy

Monday through Wednesday I went on a trip with Pascale and Jacques to Brittany and Normandy (the North East part of France). We visited a dozen (no exaggeration!) little towns as well as Omaha Beach where the Americans started their bloody battle into WWII. There is too much detail to really explain everything in a post so I will just leave you with pictures and simple captions. You will just have to wait a week for further explanations!

We stayed at this really awesome B&B that was built between the 14th and 17th centuries.

Our room was gorgeous.

Part of the castle near the B&B.

We went to Normandy and spent quite awhile at the cemetery and museum there. Very moving.

The point between French land and American land at the cemetery. Sorry, didn't tell you guys I was back in the US for a bit!

A map of the D-day landings. Very impressive.

There are over 9,300 American graves at this one cemetery from D-day only. The Americans landed at Omaha Beach - the most lives were lost here.

Pointe du Hoc - where the Germans had lots of artillery set up to protect Omaha and Utah Beaches.

Pointe de Hoc. Hard to imagine there was so much death in such a beautiful place.

A paper proving that someone did NOT have Jewish origins.

Bombs.

St-Mere-Eglise. The first town liberated by the Allies.

A parachuter landed on the steeple of the above church. Another soldier was shot and killed when he saved him from sure death. The parachute is still on the steeple (you can see the white in the picture above).

We saw an incredible tapestry that is over 1,000 years old.

Part of a castle. As you can tell, the weather was very gray, cloudy, and cold for the majority of our trip.

A 7th C. church. It was partially destroyed in the 1800's to build a road that runs next to it.

Castle ruins. Yes, we saw lots of castles.

One of the homes that Pascale lived in as a child.

A very impressive fortress that looks like one you'd see in movies.

At the castle gate.

Roman/Nordic ruins.

A typical street in the towns we visited.

Une Petite Tisane Pour Digerer?

French people take their food seriously. A few examples:
- They normally have a 3 course meal for lunch and dinner (appetizer, entrée, dessert) - side note: we use the word entrée incorrectly in English. It is actually the French word for an appetizer.
- They ALWAYS eat dessert. A meal is not right if you do not end it with something sugary.
- They don't mix salty and sugary foods on the same plate (if you noticed in the brunch pictures below, all of the pancakes are on separate plates...).


Along with taking their food seriously, they also take their digestion seriously. I find this quite entertaining. I have been asked many times if I want some herbal tea (tisane) or digestive alcohol to "digest" (digerer). They talk about it during meals as well - like 'oh, this pastry isn't cooked well enough - we better cook it more or else it will be hard to digest...' or 'oh this dessert is still warm, we should probably wait a bit so that it's easier to digest.' This is something I've already talked to Marco about, which he doesn't think is 100% true. But come to France and count how many times people talk about their digestive process. I guarantee it will out-do the number of times an American talks about it by 50.


AND not only that, they always add 'petit' (little) in front of what they are talking about. They might offer you a 'little herbal tea' but in reality it is the mug the size of a bowl. Or they might suggest a 'petite promenade' (a little walk) but in reality it's a 1.5 hour walk.


I laugh every time I hear it. I guess having a good digestive process is just as important to them as their food.... ohh les francais....

Healthy Food is Boring

Marco decided he wanted me to make him a traditional American brunch before leaving. I was completely game since I LOVVEEE breakfast foods. I made scrambled eggs, bacon, and to-die-for strawberry walnut pancakes (not the box mix either!). Pascale pressed oranges for OJ and made the 'American-style' (aka weak) coffee. Marco made the toast :). It was quite a tasty meal, if I do say so myself!

Miam miam!
Even though Pascale is normally a very healthy eater, she really enjoyed the 'light' American brunch!
Marco dug in while it was hot!
After brunch, Marco, Pascale, and I made the cookies that Aunt Donna sent to me for Easter. We wanted to wait for a day when we could enjoy making them all together, even if it was a little later than expected. They turned out pretty well and we enjoyed decorating them. I made pretty butterflies, snails, and the sun while Marco made monsters, 'ghosts,' cross-eyed rabbits and unhappy faces. Typical boy....
Can you guess who made which one? There better be an obvious difference!

Pascale and I are going to take them on our trip to Normandy to snack on. Well, I will be gone Monday-Wednesday visiting castles and the Normandy beaches so talk to you all afterwards!

Futuroscope

This past Tuesday I went on a field trip with some of the 11th graders from La Herdrie. We went to the 'Futuroscope' which is a multimedia-themed attraction park. There are different interactive rides that involve multimedia of some sort as well as numerous iMax movies to watch throughout the day (I saw one about VanGogh, . It was a lot of fun! Peggy got to go as well which made it all the better. We ran around from attraction to attraction to get to as many as possible during the day! I am proud to say that we surpassed our goal.

The architecture is pretty cool as well. It is very modern with lots of metal and glass involved.

This ride was one of my favorites. It is difficult to see because of the lighting, but you are put into roller coaster like seats and then the robot (the big white thing) spins and twirls you around all over the place! It isn't for the faint at heart....

Unfortunately, it was a very overcast and windy day. We were lucky to be there at a time when there are no lines, since they are all outside.

It was impossible to take a picture of my favorite attraction. Translated into English it is called 'With Eyes Wide Closed.' In groups of 2-4, a blind person leads you into a pitch black 'maze' of sorts. There was a beach room, trash room, a 'boat,' a pedestrian cross-walk etc. We had to identify what we were standing on, what we smelled, what we felt etc. It was very interesting to get a small glimpse into the world of the blind. Our guide was tons of fun and purposefully set us up for disaster as well :). It is always nice to be with someone with a sense of humor!

It was a fun thing to do for a day and I'm glad I got to experience it. Here is the Wiki link if you want further explanation of exactly what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futuroscope . If you click on the 'French' translation, you can see more pictures of it as well.

Au Revoir La Herdrie!

Last Friday was my last day teaching at Lycee de la Herdie. It was actually quite a normal day since of course everyone still had to work. They were nice enough to throw a little going away party for me and the other assistant, Peggy, during lunch. There was even champagne!!! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to drink any because I was too busy saying bye to people. Oh well, maybe next time!

Peggy is Dutch but is also an English assistant. I am so happy I got to share my experience at La Herdrie with her. She is a really positive girl and full of energy. The experience would have completely different (and not for the better…) without her. We ate lunch together, talked together, did the English camps together etc. We both also have the same work mentality and are very organized so this also helped us to work well together.

The teachers sang “Ticket to Ride” by the Beatles for us. It was hilarious. I promised the students I would post it on YouTube but haven’t yet done it.

A picture with my ‘responsible,’ Veronique. I was also very blessed to have her at the high school. She helped me with so much and was always very friendly. I never felt as though I was being annoying by asking questions etc. There are some other assistants who really had a terrible time with their head teacher – or who didn’t have one at all! It made the assistantship much more difficult for them.

The vice-principal (Monsieur Benac), Peggy, me, and Madame Hermange, the principal. They have always been very supportive of us as well. Madame Hermange had us over to her house a few times for coffee and dinner as well.

This is a picture of the teachers' lounge. Each teacher doesn’t have their own classroom – the teachers move just like the students between each class. The teachers' lounge is where they go between classes, to grade papers, to plan etc. I’d imagine it is difficult for them since you can be easily distracted by others in the middle of grading papers.

On the other side of the teachers' lounge. There are 6 computers for 60 some people. That proved to be quite the challenge…

A classroom I taught in fairly often. Since teachers change classrooms all the time, most of the walls are white with only a few posters here and there. It made it a much colder atmosphere than in the US.

Peggy being crazy Peggy. She made sure she closed the door before standing on top of the desks. We didn’t want to get into trouble on the day of my departure (she actually extended her contract and will be there for another 2 months).

The hall leading to the entrance of the high school.

The heart of the high school.

Oh, Peggy…. :)

Another view of the high school. This hall eventually leads to the teachers' lounge and the cafeteria.

Behind the high school. The bulding to the right in the background is where the principal and vice-principal live. They get free housing. Not too bad, huh?! The building directly behind me is where the students can go when they have breaks.

The ‘front entrance’ of the school. The parking lot is to the left, straight ahead is the gym, and then you make a right and walked down a wooded path until the school pops up out of nowhere!

The wooded path.

Hello there la Herdrie!

As always with such things, it was a bittersweet last day. I won’t miss teaching unmotivated students but I will miss those that made an effort. I will miss the people I met and the experience in general. I learned a lot and hopefully this school year in France will enable me to be a better School Psychologist in the future.

Au revoir la Herdrie!