Merry Christmas France, see you next year

Well, today is like no other start to Christmas vacation I have ever had.  In high school, I would hop in my car, listen to Christmas carols and drive the 20 minutes home.  In college, I would finish finals, pack enough for 3 weeks and make the 8 hour drive the next day with my roommates.  This year, I am in a foreign country.  I finished today (and not a moment too soon!), and tomorrow I take the train to Paris.  I will stay in Paris one night and then take the metro to the airport early on Saturday morning.  From there, I fly to Houston, 11 hours if you were wondering.  When I get to Houston, I get a lovely 4-5 hour layover that I do not want or need.  And the final leg of my trip is a 4 hour flight straight to Sacramento.  As I said, unlike any other start to Christmas break.

But I wouldn't change this experience for the world and 2 and a half days of traveling is not going to keep me from coming back in January.  I have met some amazing people here and I am looking forward to spending the first 5 months of the New Year in this wonderful town I call home.

My last classes went well today.  I got a word search from the internet to share with my kids which they enjoyed.  However, I think they really liked the Christmas pictures of Stephen and me I brought from when I was about 10-12.  I had them find objects in the background such as reindeer, Santa hats, candles, tinsel, etc. It kept them occupied and it was a great last lesson to give.

Last night, was the Aumonerie's Christmas Mass at St. Pierre.  It was a wonderful mass and after, I got something that I have been wanting for a couple of months: a roommate photo.  So here they are.

Merry Christmas!

The girls

I missed the memo that this was a serious picture...but it's the best one!

The boys!

Nadege, Marthe, and Me

And now it is dinnertime and I can hear people getting ready downstairs.  Leftovers from dinner last night is on the menu tonight.  Salmon, ham, cheese and bread, and hopefully some dessert!

Next time I write, I will be in Sacramento!  I am so excited for these next two weeks with family and friends! I can't wait!  Until next time, loved ones! Merry Christmas!

C'est la bonne vie!

French Food, Christmas Food

It seems to me that during the last week, my mind has only been processing a couple of different thoughts: my journey home in less than a week, and food.  It's not that I consciously have been trying to think about only food, but somehow that is all that has been on my mind.  I will explain.

This last week, I tried to finish all of my Christmas shopping (and succeeded in that, thank you very much).  I find Christmas shopping hard enough as it is, without having the daunting task of getting something special from France.  I have gone over and over in my head about what I can bring back for people that will be something they cannot find in the United States.  I am not going to give anything away since people who will be getting said presents are going to be reading this, but it does have a little to do with food.  So this had me on a wild goose hunt throughout centre-ville of Caen to find the best that I could.  I wandered into a lot of different French shops that sold all different types of food.  I feel as though I added all of the calories by simply walking into these stores.

Then, I have adopted Tuesday night as my night to cook for my house.  It started about 3 weeks ago when all of my roommates gagned up against Pierre, one of our other roommates who doesn't cook often, and told him he had to make dinner.  I offered to help because, let's be honest, I really don't help with the cooking all that often.  So almost 3 weeks ago, Pierre and I made dinner on a Tuesday night for everyone.  And then it just worked out that same way the next Tuesday night.  This last week, Pierre didn't eat at home for dinner on Tuesday so I took it upon myself to cook for my roomies.  I decided to make a quiche, because a. it's pretty easy and b. we didn't have that many options.  So I got out the dough for the crust, and started cutting up onions.  I grilled the onions with lardons, small pieces of ham, while I made the egg mixture.  Mixed it all together, poured it in the pan with the crust, and got it into the oven.  Of course, I watched it like a hawk for the full 20 minutes it cooked because I wanted it to be perfect!  And it was absolutely delicious.  I need to thank Nadege for suggesting the garnish on top because it definitely added to the look.

My quiche!  I was so proud!

Wednesday I had a very productive day, so I gave myself a reward of a coffee, and a nutella waffle.  I am trying to cut back on these but they are honestly so good and it's only a Christmas market thing so I think it's okay if I have a couple more this week before I leave.  I am sure going to miss the Christmas market when I come back to Caen and it's not here anymore.  Luckily we have plenty of markets around town on any given day and I can get great food at all of those places as well!

Thursday, it was my turn to do the food shopping for the house with one of my roommates.  So we went to the giant supermarket and picked up all sorts of goodies and things we needed for the house.  The first items in our basket were chocolate, cereal (with chocolate), and nutella.  Yeah, we have our priorities straight.  We ended up spending 132 euro on all of our food for just one week! But we also bought a lot of things that can stay good for a long time.  I don't think anyone will have to go this week, especially since we are all leaving for home this weekend.  That night, I think I had like 3 pieces of bread with nutella on it.  Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to buy it for the house...

The next morning, probably half of the nutella was gone between the 7 roommates.  It was only then that I decided to check for the grams of sugar in a serving.  In 100 grams of nutella, there are 55 grams of sugar.  Yikes!  We checked to see how much 100 grams is and it's about one spoonful in a soup spoon.  Well, as long as I don't eat that much at a time, I should be good! Besides, the nutella is almost gone in the house already so we won't have to worry about it anymore!

Saturday I went to a different creperie with Whitney and Josh, an assistant in Cherbourg.  I had a wonderful galette with egg, cheese, and onion.  And of course, a dessert crepe with butter and sugar.

Which brings us to Sunday, where I sit and write this post while keeping an eye on the cookies I have baking for my roommates.  They love the homemade cookies I make and have been wanting me to make them again ever since the first time I made them.  And I have to say they are turning out better than before as well.  Finally getting the hang of this French cooking thing.  And, I am very very excited to come home in less than a week and have all of the wonderful meals that come with the holiday season.  

Bon Appetit! 

C'est la bonne vie!

Baby, it's cold outside.

It is officially the most wonderful time of the year and I am enjoying every second of it!  Christmas carols are playing, it has been snowing, and exactly two weeks from today, I AM GOING HOME!!  Needless to say, I am sure you can tell from the capital letters that I am excited about this.  Nothing beats hanging out with your family at Christmas time.  I can't wait, it's going to be awesome.

But as I am trying to live in the moment, here is what is happening in France...

I named this post, creatively I would like to think, "Baby, it's cold outside".  Now when I say that, not only am I talking about one of my favorite carols, I literally mean it's the North Pole out there.  For the last week, the temperature has rarely been above 0 degrees Celsius (freezing point) and frequently been between -5 and -2 with wind chill.  It is cold.  I listen to these Christmas Carols saying "Let is snow" and "It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together" and what I am doing?  Trekking through the snow, and more common, the ice, to teach French kids who don't care about anything BUT the snow when it's completely white outside.  This week, teachers have been late to school, my bus has made me get off and walk the other half, and I try every second of the day to not fall on my face and make an idiot out of myself.  But honestly, although the snow and cold have caused a little speed bump in my normal week, it is just a small price to pay for a lovely Christmas season in France.

School report: I had problems this week (and most weeks) with getting my kids to speak English to me.  I have a couple of classes with very low levels of English and they often do not understand what I talk about during the lessons.  What I have learned is, I have to do activities to get them to speak.  It doesn't matter what we do, but they have to speak with each other.  I found a couple of different methods this week that work great: playing hangman and 20 questions.  Hangman is fun for vocabulary that they do not know.  If they guess letters in French, I often count that as a missed letter.  It was good to see some of my classes stopping and actually thinking what the word could be, only knowing a few letters.  And 20 questions is great to get the students to formulate and ask questions.  I tried this with one class this week and it went really well.  They did great at persons and places but figuring out things was a little harder for them.  They were discussing with each other what the answer could be and it made the class go by really fast.  I plan on using both of these activities in my classes the next two weeks.  And of course, teach them about American family traditions at Christmas.

This week I also started a very important part to the Christmas season: shopping! I went shopping for myself to get more sweaters and warm clothes.  I am very happy with my purchases and I can already say that I am warmer going out and about the town.  I also started Christmas shopping for loved ones.  I have a pretty good idea of what to buy for people, but I'm still in the process of scoping everything out.

As I said last time, here are pictures of the Christmas market and of the streets at Christmas time.  I unfortunately did not get many good ones, because I did not want to look like the classic tourist taking pictures up and down the market.  I have been having too much fun enjoying it (as well as the Nutella waffle stand that I am addicted to).

Welcome to the Christmas Market

Part of the market, it's a lot bigger than this

Street in Caen complete with lights and small Christmas trees

Over the last week or so, I have been feeling a lot of motivation and creativity.  I haven't been doing a lot while I have been here besides teaching, going to Aumonerie events, and hanging out with other assistants.  I think when I get back for the New Year, I am going to have to find some form of outlet.  Whether it is joining a yoga class, writing, or taking up painting again, I know that I need to do something.  I am also thinking about my future after France, because although I have 5 more months until I am back for good, I know that it is going to go really fast and as soon as I know it, I will be back in the states in June.  I do have an idea of what I would like to do when I get back, so I will be actively pursuing my options come spring time.

Until then, I am enjoying the winter immensely.  Things I am looking forward to the most at Christmas time in Sacramento: driving, a grande chai tea latte from Starbucks and a Noah's Bagels breakfast sandwich, and most importantly: spending time with my family and friends.  Two weeks everyone.  Love to you all!  

C'est la bonne vie pour moi! :)