Ça veut dire quoi?

Well, once again I am very behind on keeping everyone (aka my mother... Hi Mom!) informed on my European adventures and I'm sorry. Going through tons of photos can be exhausting! But, because I was asked to participate in the alumni photography show at my high school I was forced to do it, which means that you get to see some! I still have tons more to go through, but I figured that I would include these in the mean time.

I am returning back to the US 2 weeks from today, which is crazy! It seems to have gone so fast, but now looking at these photos from my time here some of them seem to be from another lifetime. The photos from Paris are from way back in October which seems so long ago now.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy them!

Vacation in Paris was absolutely wonderful! I wish I could show you all the pictures I have taken, but unfortunately, I don't have a cord to connect my camera to my computer!!! I realized this when I finally decided to get around to uploading them. I'll have to go to the store and buy something...buuut, that's going to have to wait until I get paid again. It was nice that we got paid right before vacation, but also NOT the greatest thing for learning how to budget this brand new pay check...

It was definitely the best trip I have had in Paris thus far: We went to the le Musée d'Orsay, le Louvre, le Centre Pompidou, Sacre Coeur, place des Voges, and plenty of exploring in other neighborhoods, which was definitely my favorite part. We, being me and my two friends Flora and Tamara, were able to stay with a wonderful host who showed us some areas and even drove us around at night in his car to see the city! It was really fantastic. I'll try to get some photos up as soon as possible.

Now I am back to work in Lyon, which varies every day from being funny/amusing, to the most frustrating experiences. But the kids are getting more used to me I think. Most of them greet me at school, which is pretty funny. I'm starting to see more people around town and that has always proved awkward; no one knows if they can talk to me in French, and they certainly don't want to try to speak to me in English!

Getting to know the city better has also been great - Lyon is really very beautiful. Some fun things I have done lately include going to my first European FOOTBALL game, which we, L'Olympique Lyonnais, WON (3-0). It was great. The best part of that experience was hearing the crowd cheer "LOL LOL LOLlol lollll" because they call the team "L'OL" for short. Another very Lyonnais thing I have done recently is attend the opening night of Beaujolais Nouveau. This is a festival that was created for the Beaujolais region to celebrate the new wine of the season. But, because it is brand new, (aka it has been in the barrels for like a week), it isn't very good AT ALL. I was watching a TV show and they had a top ten "flop" list, which included Beaujolais Nouveau. They explained: "There is only one thing worse than one glass of Beaujolais Nouveau wine, and that's two glasses." But there was a ridiculous pyrotechnics show and a parade with a  band and people carrying torches, and of course some good old French house music. Overall, both were very French experiences.

But, not to leave you hanging in the visual sense, here is a Timelapse film of Lyon - so you can really see how beautiful it is!

À plus tard,
Kendra

 Happy 1st of November everyone! In France, today is a "jour férié" so everything is closed and I am therefore, once again, confined to my house. I have plenty to do today though, because I am going to PARIS tomorrow!!! Gotta finish the laundry, clean the house, strategically plan my outfits, and pack! Luckily I FINALLY got paid!!! Seriously, thank goodness, because if it hadn't arrived today, I would have been toast.

Yesterday, as you all know, was Halloween, which they definitely do not celebrate the same as back home. It is starting to become a bit more popular because of tv and stuff, but there isn't quite the same build up. Also, since today is a holiday a lot of people just go on vacation. There were a lot of students out last night though, and it was a pretty fun night actually! Even if I didn't dress up. One thing that was the most amusing to me is that most people, if they do dress up at all, dress up as zombies or other forms of dead people. Pretty much everyone looks pretty scary, or attempts to - no slutty bunnies around here!

The students at school were pretty interested in hearing about Halloween, but I only got to do the presentation I made once - my favorite class got canceled last week, so they didn't get to see it, bummer. But they all love hearing about the food and the candy most, maybe I'm going to need to do more presentations on food... I just wish the teachers would help me out a bit more - most of them seem to use my presence as free time. I don't know what the students are learning, none of them have told me, and since I am only with most of them one out of two weeks, giving them homework is not really an option. Also, none of them told me what to prepare for the week we come back from vacation, so looks like they are going to have to do something on their own (am I being unreasonably defiant??).

Nothing much more to report, after three weeks of work I have two of vacation (rough life, huh?), but to be honest I've been a bit bored. I think I need to find more to do... definitely going to start getting on the museums (Gosh, I'm SO AMERICAN).

I will do a nice post about Paris though once I get back.

Bonnes Vacances!!

View from my Collège

My "main school" is a middle school, in French: Collège Jean Moulin. Middle school is 4 years here, including the US 6th grade to 9th grade equivalents, so I mostly work with 9th graders, or 3ème année (third year) students, and other high level English classes. It's been good so far! I only had one bad class, but I think it was caused by an exceptional circumstance - the students were all freaking out and the teacher was late, but I didn't figure out what happened because I was just trying to keep them quiet! No one told me what happened, so let's just hope it doesn't happen again. Not tryna deal with overly dramatic french teenagers.

As you can see, the view from the school is pretty boss (the picture doesn't do it justice). Jean Moulin is in the 5eme arrondisement, known as "Vieux Lyon," or "Old Lyon." Most of the downtown area dates back to the 12th century. It's pretty cool! This means my school is right next to some main tourist locations, like Notre Dame de Fourvière.


 

Main Entrance

Fouvière was built between 1872 and 1884, and it's still very active, which has lead to a strange combination of art over of the centuries. The picture on the right is of an icon of the Virgin Mary, but it was made in like 1998. It's super weird, and her backdrop is a really bad quality digital picture of some random landscape. All the mosaics in the main church are replicas of ancient scenes from the middle ages and stuff, like the first king of the Franks, but it has a strangely art-deco aesthetic. I didn't really like much about it, but there was this really cool astrological/calendar/clock thing. The picture on the left is of the lower chapel, the main church is undergoing renovations so you couldn't see anything, but it's still really big.

There is an AWESOME view of the city from there.



Next to Fouvière is the ancient remenants of the Romans' city at Lyon. This is the amphitheater, which is still in use! There are a lot of other buildings still standing near by and even another smaller amphitheater which the actors apparently used to practice in.

Looking at Fouvière and Vieux Lyon from Croix Rousse

2eme arrondisement

Croix Rousse is the hip part of town on a hill on the other side of the Saône River. It used to be where all the silk weavers lived/worked, because that used the big the big deal around here. Now they are all about being the "Centre Gastronomique." Unfortunately, this means that the french peeps go crazy for cream, butter, and meat. According to French people, these are the only food groups. Plus bread of course. And potatoes. AKA good luck trying to be vegetarian.

Last Sunday I went outside of Lyon to this small town named Bougey to "faire un petit randonée," or, "go hiking" with one of the English teachers from another school. He was a really nice guy, but clearly his "little hike" did not translate to a few hours in the countryside; we were there for 7. Walking, THE WHOLE TIME. Let's just say I didn't feel too awesome after that. At least it was really pretty. Bougey is wine country around here.

It was pretty cute... and very French.

A vineyard overlooking the town.

The Valley

DUH

Well that is about all I have been doing for now - I'm going to try and be more diligent posting because these big long ones aren't always the most fun. Later today I am going to an event for the film festival in Lyon, so that should be cool! The director of the film I am seeing, Final Cut Mesdames et Messieurs, György Pálfi, is going to be presenting the film! I also went to see Little Odessa this morning (directed by James Gray), and Tim Roth presented the film!

There he is!

Intense movie to watch so early in the morning, but it was very good.

Alright, À plus tard!

Bisous,
Kendra

But this time I'm in LYON!

And boy is it beautiful. I wanted to go on a grand picture-taking adventure today, but my battery was dead - womp womp. Tomorrow! Then I will be able to post some good pictures.

But in the meantime, here is a stupid list of things I forgot about France since the last time I was here:

1. Bathrooms don't have toilets in them.
2. Shower heads are hand-held, unless you want to sit the whole time.
3. Fork goes in your left hand, knife in the right, and they stay there.
4. French people use sounds as colloquialisms often - a lot of the time this = "fart noises."
5. They also say "faire peepee" when they need to go to the bathroom (imagine this from a 40+ year old... yeah, RIDIC).
6. I can't go to just one store to buy random things; toothpaste can be found at a super market, but you have to go to the pharmacy to get allergy medicine, and appliances require a trip to the ULTRA super market... aka, this is annoying.
7. Butter is a main ingredient. Paula Dean style, especially in Lyon ("La capitale gastronomique").
8. (speaking of bad ideas...) I've eaten bread and jam the past 3 mornings for breakfast. I'm going to buy some cereal this weekend for realz. I don't really understand how french women stay so skinny if they eat this same way, because we all know what happened the last time we went down this road, and it was a fat one.
9.Eurotrash! I really can't describe these people properly, you just have to see them - it's not even just the way they dress, it's their attitude and demeanor too. Most often outfits include tight and/or shiny things + faux leather, tans, and diamonds. Quite the sight. It's like a whole other level of "guido."
10. "C'EST LA VIE"

Ok time to meet some other assistants! Hopefully they don't suck. À Bientôt!

Biz,
Kendra

So I guess I am doing a really terrible job at posting; it's has been 21 days since my last post! And now this is going to be even more lame because I don't have the time to be super detailed since I am leaving for BERLIN tomorrow!!! Well technically we are staying in Paris for one night, and then leaving for Berlin on Tuesday morning, but whatever. I am really excited! I will have all sorts of pictures and stories when I return! We are going to be there for 3 whole days and 4 nights! And our hotel is in a really awesome location!

I went to Biarritz two weekends ago and that was really amazing and beautiful, and apparently like the Hamptons of France or something. There were 15 of us total staying in a hotel and it was right by the beach. It was so nice being near the water - I love the smell of the ocean, and finally my hair wasn't static-y! We layed out at the beach both days and enjoyed the hot weather and went out to a great dinner and club after, both of them right on the water!  It was so much fun and basically like a field trip for our normal group of friends to another city. I would definitely go back if I had time; it almost felt like Spain - there was even paella!

Well since I should be finishing internship applications I guess I will do a short update! haha.

So it has officially been three months since I arrived in France. That is such a long time, but it has really flew by! It is so weird to think of the time when I first arrived here. It was so cold and it was like no one lived here at all. Now that it is spring, besides there being more plants and trees alive, there are more people around and functioning! Now people open their shutters and you can hear people moving around in their homes when you walk around the neighborhood. Before it was always just so silent. It's really refreshing, and really makes me like the place more, which makes it difficult to think that I will be leaving right when it gets really nice and warm here. It's strange almost that I feel such a connection with this city after such a short time, but you really do adjust really quickly; I mean you just have to. I was basically auto-piloting myself to my bus stop the other day and when I noticed it was kind of amazing that I was doing that.

And while California and France are both western cultures, they are SO different. It is going to be weird adjusting back. I am so excited to see my family and friends again and be back in a more familiar place, but it will still be strange to not be in France, hearing French all the time, and baguettes, and cafés and the tram and all that. I'm excited to go back, but still sad to leave. Because really California is where I live; I really can't wait to have everything I own at my disposal again, especially all my clothes!

But no point dwelling on that now. I just need to enjoy the rest of the time that I have here. I keep forgetting that I still have Berlin and Southern France to look forward to! Both are going to be so amazing! I can't wait!!! :)

Or maybe I should say "Barthelona." Well, regardless of pronunciation, this city is freaking RAD. Since I have already had some experience with the feel of Spain, I was very excited to go back and Barcelona definitely didn't let me down. First off, it was SO WARM. I know Vanessa will disagree with me on this point, but considering it was still around the 40s in France when we went, having it be around 60 degrees everyday was GLORIOUS. I only wore a sweater. YEAH, JUST A SWEATER. It was awesome.

We flew in Friday and checked out the surrounding area of our hotel a bit, which was right next to placa Catalonia, the biggest one in the city. Then I went and got my haircut! By a French guy. hahaha. I was so excited to get all the dead hair off; it just did not handle winter very well. Then we went and had some tapas, paella, and sangria! Standard. Saturday we were on the tour bus all day, stopping a few times like at the Gaudi Park, which I forget the real name of, but it was really cool. So many people were there and there were a lot of musicians, performers and vendors around. Vanessa, Elen, and I went out that night and it was a lot of fun! Started off walking in to a bar with only drunk English men there, who of course proceeded to make a huge scene. We didn't stay long. haha. We then went to a night club that a few people had recommended, which I also forget the name of, but when we got there it was still half a restaurant. We were really confused by this, but soon after people started breaking down the lounge we were in and later the whole wall opened up and all the tables were moved. We met a guy from UCSB randomly, some very drunk Danish people, and these Dutch guys who were on our bus; all adding to the entertainment of the night. Great night.

Sunday was a late start after the long night so we went to check out the Sagrada Familia for real and then the Gaudi apartments. the Sagrada Familia is probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I don't think I have ever been that shocked by something at first glance before. It is sooo big! And I had no idea it was that unfinished! It basically is being constructed on the scale that gothic and medieval churches were back in the 1400s! It has already been under construction for over 100 years and you still can't walk through the center of it! So cool. We went up to the top and got a cool view of the city and the crazy staircases. Everything Gaudi did was directly influenced by nature too. It was so amazing, the columns were modeled after trees and the windows were shaped after some helix structure. SO COOL. I'm def planning on going back in like 20 years or something; I want to see how it grows!!!

Monday Elen and I went down to the port through Las Ramblas, the main street in Barcelona, and the market, and the gothic section of the city. We were wanting to rent vespas, but the guy at the rental place said he would only rent them to us if we knew how to drive already since drivers in Barcelona are crazy. Glad I didn't attempt that one. I did touch the Mediterranean though! Met up with Annette and Vanessa and had a nice lunch at the port then went back to the hotel to rest and so I could pack. It was a great weekend! I am so glad I got the opportunity to go! [THANK YOU ANNETTE!!!]

Such a great weekend. Now here's some pictures! More on Facebook!

So I lied: this post is not going to be about Barcelona. But we have far more pressing matters on our hands: I think I forgot how to do research and I need to talk it out.

Thursday marks the first time in France that I will have real school work due. I mean I have had to do reading for my French novel class and write little introduction paragraphs and plans for essays and stuff that my teacher looked over but I never had to do any extra work or find information outside of what I already know; minus vocab in French of course. But now, I have to write an essay of probably around 4 pages (1.5-spaced), in french, which is going to be my only grade for the entire class, and I feel like I can't remember how to research or how to set up my space and get a good strat going for attacking this feat. And really, it is going to be a feat. Not only is it the longest paper in French I have ever had to write, but it will also be the first time I have written a whole paper since November. That is such a long time!!! Seriously, WTF am I supposed to do!? I have a plan/outline written out, but I literally can not remember how I would usually start out papers, that's how long its been. This really is not ok. I mean I have 3 months of time between doing work in Spring and Fall, why am I having trouble now?! I know part of it is the idea of it all being in French, but it really isn't that different, and I know exactly how to organize it, I just can't freaking research properly! as;ldkjfalsdkjf;ajksdhf;ajhsdhfhajdjhjhjkahjskhkjdk

It would probably help if I didn't hate school here so much. The system really is just the worst. The students are so uninterested, as well as the teachers, if not more. It's kind of depressing. And since all my classes are 2-hours or more in one sitting, it's IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to remain engaged for the entire period, or for someone lecturing for that long to even attempt to be interesting the while time. Which, believe me, they don't. Also, this is way too long of a time to have the same teachers; I don't know what I would do without the quarter system.

Ok, enough whining. I just need to read over what information I have found and then I can figure out what information I want to include, then I can start writing. And I need to get at least half finished tonight and/or tomorrow morning so I can show my methodology teacher before class tomorrow. I just have to stop being an asshole and stay off facebook.

JE VAIS AVOIR DU SUCCÈS!

So everyone knows about Paris. Everyone knows the monuments and museums and art. I mean the fact that I could figure out easily how to get around the city and which buildings are which just based on memory makes that pretty obvious. Granted I have been to Paris before, but let's be honest, visiting as a 9th grader, aka 6 years ago, makes it pretty easy to forget what I saw. But, after all those art history classes it was pretty sweet to see what I have studied.

Anyway, I won't bore you with all the details, but I went up to Paris two weekends ago on Thursday afternoon and was picked up from the train station by my friend Amber. We went back to her boyfriend Paul's apartment (where I would be staying for the next two nights), had dinner, had some wine, and made our way to Amber's favorite club where it was "Erasmus Night." Erasmus is the name of the study-abroad program for all the students in Europe so at the club they have a booth where you can get a sticker of the flag for what country you are from. I got Ireland. Obviously no one would question me, I'm a GINGER. It was a lot of fun; I was really in to the "I'm from Ireland" story-line and since I was, well, not entirely sober, I'm not sure how many people I told this fact to. Overall, a great night!

Friday just consisted of picking up another friend from the train station after a late start that morning, getting some Laudrée macarons (BEST EVER), and going to the Eiffel Tower for pictures. Saturday we walked around a little in the morning and then I went and met Annette, Vanessa, and Elen at their hotel near Notre Dame (6ieme arrondisement)! It was so great to see them! We got some food, checked out Notre Dame and the surrounding areas then had dinner and planned the next couple days. Sunday was climbing the Eiffel Tower and Musée d'Orsay on Vanessa's birthday, then having a lovely dinner. Monday we went to the Louvre and walked around the Toulierie gardens then crepes back near our hotel and a nap. I was so tired after that weekend, but it was great to get to Paris. I'm so excited to be able to go back in April and May when it is warm and beautiful! This trip was at the same time as the trip I took in 9th grade, so being cold was mostly expected. Another interesting observation was that there were a few people I talked to in French that couldn't understand me; and I'm talking proper nouns and they couldn't understand me. It was very strange. It was fun showing of my French skills though; I'm so excited they have improved so much.

Alright, now pictures! There are more on facebook though!

To all my avid readers: I am very sorry for taking so long to post again, it really does take a lot of time (and sass) to produce a great post, and I have been very busy having awesome European adventures! I also promise to post more often so I don't have to make freakishly long posts here again. haha.

Well first thing first, and (supposedly) the thing I am here to experience: school. I have now begun week 5 of classes in France and they are going just fine. I think I really lucked out on the amount of work I have for my classes because for the most part, I don't have to do anything. The reading for my classes is optional and not really necessary as long as you go to class (except for my French novel class - Proust now, awesome), and since we are foreign, and I guess they assume we don't understand anything, all my finals will be separate from the French students; for my Renaissance class I have to type out an presentation that I just turn in, I won't actually be presenting it. Basically, everything is easy. It's nice because it makes it easier for me to travel and not have a lot of studying to worry about, but it's also weird having school be kind of a joke. Whatever, I'd rather travel anyways, hahahaha.

So now the more important info: where I have been in the last 20 days! The weekend of the 12th and 13th I went to Carcassonne and Toulouse. The trip to Carcassonne ended up not being as eventful as I thought it would, as I had my visite medicale for my visa that morning (8h30, nice and early!) and it took longer than I thought it would, so I had to take the later train. The old part of city is one of the biggest medieval cities in France that has been fully renovated, except since I got there so late my friends had already gone there (a 30-minute walk), so I didn't get to see that part of the city. It was also around 5pm and had snowed earlier so we wanted to get to our hotel, also a 45-minute walk away. We ended up getting lost on the way there so it's a good thing we left when we did. We did go to dinner at a small restaurant near our hotel and stayed there for around 3 hours talking; it was really great. The next day we took the train to Toulouse, another cool city that is pretty old. It was nice walking around in the morning, and we went to this really old church with all these relics. It was really cold though later in the afternoon so I decided to take the train back to Bordeaux that night. It sucks that the weather is actually a factor when you go traveling outside of California, hahaha; it was nice to get out of Bordeaux for awhile nonetheless.

Now the real adventure was going to San Sebastian in SPAIN the weekend of the 20th. It was absolutely beautiful! And Spain just had such an amazing energy. It also helped that it was about 10 degrees warmer than Bordeaux the whole weekend. It was an amazing experience, and definitely made me feel a lot better about my French skillz. I mean I was able to bust out a little bit of ANCIENT Spanish, but mostly I would just default to French and sound retarded. Also, since we didn’t know the language it was really intense getting around, and mostly involved pointing and wild hand gestures; pretty much everyone we encountered only spoke Spanish, even at the train station! Which made no sense, considering it was right on the border with France. But we did make it there and Candy, Collin, and I were insanely excited. It was a little cloudy and as we started walking to our hostel began to sprinkle... then there were some really big drops.. then it was POURING. It was actually really comical, and even though we all got wet we were still stoaked to be in Spain! I did have to buy some boots though because the weather in Bordeaux was so sunny and nice, I got thrown off and wore flats, which were the only shoes I brought. Luckily they were on sale; ironically they are the same kind of cowboy-esque boots that all the french girls wear.


Our hostel was really nice, clean, and warm, so we waited there for the owner, Miguel (coolest guy ever), who only spoke Spanish. We think this other guy worked in the hostel, but he was from Scotland so he translated for us a bit. It was funny that Miguel could speak Spanish to us though and we could pretty much understand him. We got a map and walked around the city a little bit more, then met up with some other friends who were in the city as well to celebrate her 21st birthday! We walked around the old part of town for quite some time before finding the tapas restaurant we wanted, then proceeded to wait for an hour for our table (there were 8 of us). At this point it was around 10pm, the Spanish eat so late, but it was kind of awesome how many people were out walking around and eating dinner; such a difference from Bordeaux! The food was awesome! I didn't actually know what a lot of the things I was eating were, but it was still all really good. After dinner and 3 pitchers of Sangria, we went to a small bar and basically started the dancing there. We finally headed home around 2 am I think, which was a nice walk by the ocean! I didn't realize I would miss the ocean so much! Definitely take that for granted.


The next day we woke up around 10am, got out of the hostel around 11, and started walking around the city. After lunch we hiked up the mountain behind the old part of town where there used to be a castillo and where there is now a huge Jesus statue. We then met up with our friends again at a pastry shop/ café, as our friend Kaylee decided to stay the second night with us. Walked around a big more, attempted to find some dream shoes, failed, then went back to the hostel to drop stuff off, went back to the bay to take pictures at night. I got splashed and soaked by a huge wave in this little view point, we went back to the hostel to get me dry clothes and a dinner recommendation. Miguel suggested this place owned by one of his friends and it was DELICIOUS. Paella is freaking so good.  I had no idea! Miguel was also nice enough to call ahead for us so we didn't have to embarrass ourselves with bad Spanish and so the paella was ready by the time we got there. The owner welcomed us in immediately, I guess it was pretty obvious that we were American. hahaha. So after eating a TON,  we walked back to the hostel, taking a detour to loiter in a playground and be obnoxious. It was a great night. SO WARM.

Don't believe that actually exists? Well here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundersnow

Yeah, it just happened. I was sitting in my room, when suddenly there was some intensely loud thunder for like 45 seconds, so I decided to look out the window to see what's going on, and it was SNOWING. But not even like the light, peaceful kind, it was pouring SNOW. It was the strangest thing! It only lasted for about 8 minutes, but it was still crazy. I always connected thunder with rain; i mean it makes sense that it could happen in snow, but in my mind snow is just so synonymous with quiet-ness it didn't make any sense. Crazy Europe.

Another amusing event from tonight was "Taco Night." Yes, you read that right, I had taco night in France. With my French roommates. It was hilarious. We made "burritos," but they put fajita sauce in with ground beef. It was close though. It worked out well though because I had bought salsa from the foreign section of the grocery store just because I was excited to see it, not because I had anything to eat it with. Too bad the salsa was actually really sweet, and definitely not medium heat. There is nothing spicy here. It's terrible. I taught them about using sour cream and tomorrow night we are going to make quesadillas. hahahahaha. They already make fun of me for my sub-par cooking skills; I wonder how this is going to work out.

In other news we have another roommate! Her name is Jennifer and she is one of Anne-Sophie's friends from home/Paris. She is really quiet, but very nice, and randomly likes American Football. It's kind of awesome that she is here now though; mostly because of her we got a new, bigger refrigerator, and  hot water for the kitchen sink! And maybe if we are REALLY lucky, a washing machine!!! We will be in a pimpin' log cabin in no time!

I have also taught my roommates about peanut butter. Anne-Sophie bought some at the store the other day, but it became very apparent that she has no idea what to actually eat it with since it sat there for like 4 days untouched. I went to the store and got some of my own and started putting it on all this stuff and they were amazed! Nutella + peanut butter. Peanut butter + Jelly. And what they now both really like: apples + peanut butter. So funny.

Tomorrow's forecast: who wants to guess how long I will have to wait for the bus/tram tomorrow? Thundersnow is definitely not conducive to prompt public transportation...

So since no one has been to Bordeaux, nor is it very helpful when you google image-search it, here are some photos of the city! I figure it would be helpful to get a better idea of where I am actually living.