Les grèves...

Beauty in the Alps.

Life in la belle France has been rather 'vite, vite, vite' lately what with all my trips to Clermont-Ferrand. As an Américaine there are certain documents I must furnish to the French government (birth certificate, multiple copies of my visa/passport) and medical exams I must undergo (chest x-ray for TB) in order to work in this lovely country. I completed the paperwork circus (for the moment) yesterday! After making several trips back and forth to Clermont-Ferrand, the capital city of my region, I have one new friend, Pascal a bus driver, and a 'titre de séjour' to show for it! The titre de séjour means money in the bank, baby :)

So again I am thankful to the Lord for his continued blessings. God is good all the time, but it's especially clear when nice things happen!

The first round of vacations is coming up tomorrow and I am suuuuuuper pumped. The French celebrate a holiday called Toussaints = Tous Saints = All Saints (day) which I think is similar to Dia de Los Muertos and, of course, HALLOWEEN!! Well, not so much Halloween but I couldn't think of a better segue for talking about Halloween... Ahhh, what is your best memory of Halloween? I remember one year my friends and I were trick-or-treating and we came back to my house in the middle of our candy gathering for a breather. We were twelveish and pretty simple-minded because we thought we could apply deodorant to any part of our bodies to control our perspiration... I walked around the rest of the night smelling like a stick of Degree.

I <3 Halloween. Probably my favorite holiday after Christmas.

Back to the strikes, aka grèves. So Susi and I are leaving St. Pourçain for the weekend to celebrate her birthday, which is October 25th, in Le Puy en Velay and then St. Etienne. She is turning 22 and we're going to have a blasty. The one thing that has continued to put a damper on our trips and may continue to do so tomorrow is the train striking. The railroad workers have been striking every weekend since I arrived making getting out of Auvergne, my region of France, quite difficult. However, the Lord has helped us each time to get where we needed to go!

After our weekend celebrating Susi's birthday, I am heading to Switzerland for a few days with some other assistants, Shannon and Pam. Shannon is also bringing her friend Ashley who is studying in the South of France. Watch out land of Toblerone: you soon will be invaded by four Americana girls! Actually, we're going to Geneva, so I'm sure you're used to the Americanos, Ricola country. It's going to be great. I used to dream about living in the Swiss Alps secluded from modern life and progressive ideas... Oh youth. Oh Heidi...

There's the news for now. I want to share what I'm reading as well, so we'll see if I can't find a gadget for that.

Blessings to you this weekend and enjoy your Halloween!!!

Où est le chauffage, stp?

xkcd.com

Winter is commmmming! Autumn has arrived :)

Normally I would not be singing about the cold weather and unrelenting wind that come along with the above-stated seasons, but as I look out my window I can't help but smile at the leaves changing colors. Ahh.

Well today marks my third day as a "teacher". Lesson planning has proved more difficult than I thought and I must give credit to all the teachers I've ever had. Bravo! Fortunately for me, ESL resources are all over the internet so the ideas never run out. Keeping the students interested in the topic is the only thing...Today I have 3ème (9th grade) and their English is less than perfect. I hope we can fun all the same.

Last weekend Susi and I were in the Alps with GBSE and we had a marvelous time. When I have my camera cable, I will be sure to post some exciting pictures. For the moment I have a few taken in the car heading back to Saint Etienne and a few from our time in Grenoble celebrating Ray's birthday.

A +


The new intern, Raphaël, and me actin' a fool in the van...


Me, Raph, Mikhail and Susi on the tram in Grenoble. Fancy!

Il faut le faire

So, forgive me if I have a few typos in this blog. Due to a series of unfortunate events (ahem, the slowness of French administration) my room mate Susi and I are still without internet. Thus I am obliged to use a French keyboard. Yes, yes it is true what they say: Technology in France is definitely antiquated. Alas, I shall make do!

Last week was quite excellent as I spent three days chit chattering with other assistants in my Académie, Clermont-Ferrand. I think I made a great friend from Missouri who is also blogging this year. Her name is Shannon and rest assured that when I find her blog I will post it here for you all to read. She's just twoish hours south of me in a tiny town called St. Flour. While it seems like you would pronounce that 'flour' I think you pronounce it like 'fleur'. It's kind of funny really because fleur means flower and flour..is ..pronounced like...flower...

Only funny to me? Fair enough.

So yes, Clermont-Ferrand was great and I really tried to take in all of the information we were presented with. Most of the other assistants have to come to France with the sole purpose of learning French. I understand their reasons, but for me, I feel much more inclined to hang out with the kids and really help them improve their English. I have found out how hard that makes things when I have attempted to speak French at the same pace as the other people around me. Not so easy when you speakinzes Engrish tout le temps!

To help me improve my French then, I purchased two dictionaries: French-English and just straight up French. On verra...

In other news, Susi and I will be heading to Camp des Cimes with the GBSE, or church in Saint Etienne, this weekend. Susi is not a believer but she still wants to come. I think that is cool. Anyway we leave on Friday and we will be spending a weekend in the glorious Alps. Pray that the weather is good! Can you imagine getting caught in a deluge in the Alps?? I can't, nor do I want to.

Spaking of Susi, she is fantastic! My normal inhibitions about living with other people occasionally surface when I want to lay on the sofa for hours undisturbed, but usually we get along great. She's from Berlin and she is working here as a volunteer. I know God has brought us here for special purposes and I feel very blessed to have her as a room mate. Really, she's great :)

Tonight Susi took me to play volleyball in town and we had a blast. I was a lot more competitive than I thought I would be and I actually attempted to trash talk in French... Yikes. The good natured gentlemen, as we were two ladies and four gents, played at our level and we had some pretty good rallies. They even asked if we would come back next week. How about that!

Next week I start giving lessons, so keep that in your prayers. My main goal is to give the kids what they need because the education system here is pretty cut and dried: you are either a great student, or you're not. If you're not a great student then your job options diminish rather quickly after junior high. English is a core subject here, so they need to do well.

Je suis fatiguée donc je vous laisse. Bonne nuit à tous et à bientôt aux autres :) Bonne semaine mes amis!!