Trolling the ancient Yuletide carols

So, while dancing at a soirée and singing "All I want for Christmas is you", a brilliant(ly absurd) idea occurred to me. Caroling. In the residences. If I am doomed to miss the traditional Lexington caroling with the Page family, the least I can do to ease my sorrow is bully some friends into humiliating themselves with me by performing English carols for various unsuspecting French students. Luckily for me, Jacquie, my fellow lectrice, was more than equal to this challenge, as was Zara, who also brought her poor visiting sister. We bribed, guilt-tripped and begged some others into coming along for various amounts of time, and went from module to module. I had made up some lyric sheets with a bunch of typical carols, and printed out copies for everyone we could entice, plus some extras. Call me an optimist.

We started with building A, bottom to top, mostly where we knew people, but also anywhere that was next door to a bell we were already ringing, and suddenly it seemed we were caroling almost all the modules, all the way to building E. We sang a song at each one, followed by the "we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year" refrain. To one guy who said he had just turned 21, we sang happy birthday.

Reviews were decidedly mixed. Many clapped, many laughed, a couple peeked out and decided it must not be for them and closed the door again. One told us that her roommates were sleeping (it was 9:15), and we should be quiet. One guy offered to teach us the lyrics in French. Many thanked us and congratulated us on our beautiful singing (this may or may not have been slightly undeserved. Effort points?) But mostly, we got the confused face. Did we want money? (no) Did we want wine? (no) Did we want German truffles? (yes, definitely.) The looks on their faces asked why we would ever do such a thing, such a terrifically humiliating thing. The roommate of one of our friends told her this was one tradition she was very glad the French didn't have. We explained the tradition of caroling numerous times, with varying amounts of success.

In the beginning, we were six or seven, then slowly people begged off and went home. Eventually it was just Jacquie and me, but we were having too much fun to let it go that easily, so we perfomed a half dozen of duets and then headed to good old b34 for some Tisane de Noel which I got in Strasbourg. I had an absurd amount of fun, laughed harder than is polite, and generally enjoyed making a spectacle of myself in front of many acquaintances, friends and students. Love live the American traditions, and sharing them, however distorted they may become in translation, with the French.

Strasbourg etc.

So Lyon has this festival of lights, la Fête des Lumières, whereupon they illuminate much of their glorious architecture in technicolor, put little candles in the windows, and use the excuse to attract many tourists and sell mulled wine and crêpes on every streetcorner. There are many professionally designed light shows, and it is pretty cool, if somewhat of a mob scene. Half in honor of this, and half just to pay an old friend a visit, 7 members of Andrea's Italian childhood posse came to town Friday night via a rented minivan. You can imagine the craziness that ensued.
So this weekend, I also had the good fortune to weasel my way onto a trip to Strasbourg with the staff/teacher's association. Which meant that after a late night of enjoying the illuminated downtown with the Italians, I got up at 4 (after less than 2 hours of sleep) and stumbled to the meeting point for the bus. My fellow lectrice Adeline also came along, and it proved to be a glorious journey. We had a nice big tourbus, I slept much of the way there.
We were dropped off in Strasbourg, a lovely town in the Alsace region, which is known for its complicated history of alliance with France, then Germany, then France, etc. The architecture is charming, much more Germanic than French, with the exposed wood panels and cottage style dominating over the cement and stone of the typical French edifices. This town is also known for hosting the politicking of the European Union, as well as for its Christmas markets, which was what brought us there. They were indeed quite nice, I found some beautiful used books, and a few presents. We also enjoyed some café sitting (and thawing), as well as much wandering about the city and stopping in cute stores. Then we went on a tourboat along the canals (even navigating a lock, my first!), seeing the lights and buildings from a warm and watery angle. After, the group of us enseignants (teachers and staff) headed to a restaurant serving up the typical Alsatian fare - meal (if not the delicious Christmas beer) covered by the association. We had a great time and sat with some people I knew, one woman who joined my class to practice her English, and her partner, whom I had biked with. It was a wonderful meal, followed by the classic Alsatian Munster (I highly recommend it).
The next day, after the nothing special but damn was it cheap hotel, we went on a vineyard tour in a small village outside Strasbourg. The man explained that his land has been used for harvesting grapes since the 1300s, and had us taste approximately twenty wines of different ages, types of grapes, all from his vineyard. I liked his Gewurtraminers best, but they were a little out of my budget... After, we headed to the village of Riquewihr, for some more charming architecture, some lunch, and some more Christmas market. I bought some Hansi prints and smelly cheese for the roomies, and we were headed back home. A busy but fabulous Euroweekend!
Also, in two weeks, I will be stateside! Email (or call me after Dec 21), and I would love to see you all!

Turkey!

THANKSGIVING

So there was this small occurrence of the classic American holiday Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is actually my most favorite holiday, and I was afraid I would be very homesick and sad to miss spending it with my family. Consequently, I had decided I wanted to do my best to recreate it, at least for me and my roommates. Then the guest list started slowly but surely to expand. Naturally I wanted all the American expats to share in the festivities. Boyfriends and girlfriends of roomies and expats were invited, and from there it was a short leap to close friends of all nationalities. Then we wanted to invite our neighbors who had invited us to dinner awhile ago, and guests started asking if they could bring their roommates, or significant others, or close friends, or cousins of their father-in-law's best friend's grandchildren. Everyone was very intrigued by this exclusively American event, and we wanted everyone to experience its glory. So eventually we realized we couldn't host this thing in our kitchen anymore, so we reserved a room on campus, and when 40 some odd people showed up, it proved to have been very wise.

So I had said I would do the turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce and maybe a pie or two with help from my roomies. So as I realized the scope of the guest list, I started wondering about how I was going to procure, stuff and cook a whole turkey of any decent size in my microwave oven. My French friend Justine said we could use hers (she has a real apartment, and thus a real kitchen), and helped me wander around some neighborhood butcher shops asking about ordering a whole turkey (not a very French thing to do). So we found the most adorable classical French butcher shop, complete with little old women in fur coats ordering tripe and pâté, and a butcher (named Roland Menut) in his white apron singing folksongs while chopping up dead animals with knives of an alarming size. He said he could order us a turkey anywhere from 8 to 28 pounds, and I asked Justine to measure her oven so we could get the biggest one possible.

Unfortunately, due to the reasonable French portion sizes and sensitivity to things like energy consumption, her oven was not actually any bigger than my microwave. So when I told good old Roland, he said I couldn't even cook a little turkey in my oven, and explained to me the science of roasting a bird in an oven and why mine was insufficiently large. I expressed my disappointment and asked what he recommended and he said, not to worry, HE would cook the turkey at the shop. I said that was incredibly kind, but the only trouble was that we traditionally stuff our turkey. Would he mind if I came to the shop in the morning with some stuffing? Not at all, he said, he would be happy to accommodate stuffing. As he has a gigantic restaurant sized oven, I ordered the biggest turkey available (it ended up weighing in about 23 pounds). So on the morning of Thanksgiving, after having stayed up until 1:30 cooking big batches of cranberry sauce with Nathalie, I got out of bed, taught an 8am class, and rushed home to make some stuffing. I had been drying bread for days, and our apartment was a veritable stale bread factory. I wept over some onions, poured in various amounts of all the spices I had managed to procure and whipped up some stuffing. I took a rental bike (the only way to travel) with our hugest soup cauldron full of stuffing in the front basket, and headed off to the boucherie (butcher shop). Roland accepted the stuffing with interest, as well as my extensive (and probably unnecessary, considering his profession) instructions on how to rub the spices (which I had also brought) onto the turkey. I told him I would be back (with a car this time, thank God), at 5:30pm for the cooked bird, and went back home to prepare.

Three other batches of stuffing (classic, Hallal, and vegetarian), a couple dozen corn muffins, two chocolate pecan pies, and some whole wheat bread later, Nat and I (in a friend's borrowed car) retrieved the beautiful and still piping hot turkey. I had made various American delicacies to thank Roland (who hadn't charged extra for the cooking, and who had given us his roasting pan), including cookies, muffins, a mini chocolate pecan pie and cranberry sauce. He seemed charmed, we exchanged cheek kisses, and we returned to campus, where I rapidly made some gravy and we headed to the party room, where some 40 of our closest friends were waiting.

I had asked the others to bring side dishes, wine etc, realizing that while I was happy to host a million people I could not realistically expect to feed them all myself. Thanks to Bike and Build, I know how much food it can take to feed a bunch of young adults. It turned into an extensive potluck, our friends from all corners of the globe outdid themselves following confusing American recipes for mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cornbread, green beans, salads, pies, applesauce, etc. It was the most glorious banquet in my recent memory, and the whole evening was a huge success. All the French people were legitimately impressed with American cuisine, which is no small miracle, and the bird was beautiful. I had tons of fun, everyone got some turkey (which was DELICIOUS), and we danced and drank wine and generally were thankful for good food, good friends, and good times all around. A holiday to remember. Now we are making soup (half the carcass at a time, because it is too big to fit all at once), washing many dishes, wearing sweatpants and vowing not to eat until Christmas.

(Others were in charge of photographing the actual event, so photos of turkey and festivities to follow soon, hopefully.)

As always, sorry for the long delays between posting, but I will brief you on some highlights of the last few weeks. My friends had some fun parties, including a return to childhood party at my friend Justine's glorious old French apartment, which found me trying to outsing the French lyrics to all the Disney movies. (I'm sorry, some things just are sacred, and I maintain that Robin Williams' genie performance in Aladdin is one of them.)

Last weekend, I went on a "sortie vélo" (bike trip), organized by the guy who runs the association sportive here. He told me it would be chill, and that there were a lot of people coming even on the super heavy slow rental bikes. Since this was to be my first real bike trip after breaking my wrist, I was somewhat reassured. nevertheless, I got all dolled up in my spandex, and headed out with my French bike (named Louis Philippe). So I get to the meeting point, a little late at 9:40am, but after a night of partying, what can you do. So it's me, Christian, the head of the sports assoc, and one other thirty-something guy, who both are all decked out in their real winter spandex stuff. So we wait a bit, but no one else shows up, and so we head out to meet two other French guys, teachers at the school who are meeting us at a park. I was a little nervous, biking only with spry Frenchmen and not having biked in a long time, but my energy legs carried me through, and I even wished the pace was a little faster. (I also wished it were less freezing, as my leg warmers are not full length. My legs were very pink afterwards). It was a lovely, short ride(2.5 hours, child's play) , and we went up the river and through some nice parks. True to my nature, I got a flat as we went over a few kilometers of gravel, but I had the stuff to fix it and I like to think the Frenchmen were impressed.

Afterwards I rushed to the Museum of Contemporary Art, where my friend Luiza was speaking in a conference on the art of Robert Morris. She was amazing, naturally, and the museum was really cool and full of crazy and controversial art which is always fun when experienced in a group of friends and after a couple plastic cups of wine which we enjoyed at the end of conference party.

Other than that, life was good, classes are going very well, I feel like I am much more at ease at the front of the classroom, and genuinely love teaching. Post to follow about Thanksgiving!

Salut tout le monde, sorry for the delay in posting.
Italy was glorious, Erin, Michele (Erin's mom) and I had a wonderful time exploring the very pedestrian city, soaking up the architecture, the art, the warmer weather, the food, and trying desperately not to butcher the melodious language of Dante.
You can see some photos of a delicious pizza, the river, which is surrounded by beautiful buildings, including the Duomo with Brunelleschi's famous dome. We climbed up the inside, and it was truly amazing to think this was built without the use of scaffolding. You can also see the old city walls, and the tower of Pisa (it really does lean!).
We took a bus tour the last full day in the city, which took us to San Gimignano, a beautiful little town full of medieval towers, Siena (sadly wrong time of year for the huge famous horse race), a wine estate in the Chianti region, and finally Pisa. All of it was spectacular, and made me promise to return. Next time I think I will go with Nathalie, whose family is Italian, and speaks the language like a native...

Since then, I have been chilling in and around Lyon, catching up on lesson planning and grading the first test I gave (many very good grades and some very bad ones...hmmm), and entertaining some friends from my Grenoble days who came to visit from Belgium. There's always a lot going on here, and it has been a very fun couple of weeks. I found the organic market on Saturday, which is a hike (up a big hill!) to get to, but definitely worth it. Tonight we are going to a friend's apartment for a Disney themed party, and I am excited to hear all the songs I remember from childhood, this time sung in French. à bientôt,
Charlotte
ps. Just finalized my vacation plans, and will be home from dec 21 to january 11, so let me know what your plans are, and I hope to see all of you!

Obamanation

So there we were, in front of the tiny tv in our common room: American, French, Canadian, English, Tunisian, Romanian, Czech, Italian, spellbound. Many of us had stayed up all night, watching the CNN broadcast from midnight on, we Americans trying desperately to explain the electoral college, the popular vote issues, red states and blue states and swing states. Laughing at the "holograms" and the tv personalities, praying for Obama, barely daring to hope as the map slowly turned bluer and the magic number approached 270.

At 5am, when they officially called Obama the president elect, we exploded. We screamed and hugged and laughed and jumped up and down and chased our coffee with champagne, and let out a huge collective sigh of relief. I had been so nervous for so long that I could barely believe it was real even when it was announced. We calmed down enough to listen to the speech by McCain, and waited through the same two commercials repeated interminably, until finally, Barack Obama, the president elect, addressed the nation. There was, for the first time all night, universal silence (and perhaps a few tears), as we all listened, giving no commentary until the final applause.

I am so happy I really can't write it. It has been bittersweet for me to be abroad for this election, which I have followed (if from afar) more closely than I have ever followed any one previously. On the one hand, watching the festivities on tv made me a little sad not to be there firsthand. On the other, all I had to do was look around to see half a dozen countries represented, the expressions on their faces making it perfectly clear they understood the importance and shared the joy of this moment. After all, hadn't they all stayed up all night on a Tuesday to watch it unfold? It is amazing the extent to which the entire world is watching us. The election has been hugely covered in all the French (and British, and Italian) newspapers I have been reading lately, and the entire world was in support of Obama. They could hardly believe someone like Sarah Palin was seriously being considered, and we are all very relieved to have dodged that bullet. I am exceedingly proud that, by electing Obama, the US has finally done something right in the eyes of our international neighbors. I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful new chapter in our history, both for Americans at home and for people all over the world. So I leave you to go about my normal Wednesday tutoring business by saying, Good morning, America.

WOOF Weekend

My roommate James spent the two weeks before arriving in Lyon on an organic goat farm about two hours to the southeast of us. He raved so much about his time there that we all managed to get ourselves invited this vacation when he went back to visit. I have only a bit of time here, but in the four days we had there, I herded goats, picked apples, helped feed animals, harvested potatoes, made fresh pasta, attended a wild hippie jazz soirée in a barn, and ate lots of extremely local and delicious food. Here are some photos, and hopefully a more thorough update to follow. Until then, I am off to Florence for the rest of break!
PS. So if you haven't yet had the pleasure of hearing about or experiencing this global phenomenon, WOOFing is working on an organic farm. Check out the details on wwoof.org.

Captions: the barn party, the two male goats fight over an uninterested female, goats graze peacefully, and the farm from the fields.

Toussaint!

I think it is ironic that I was almost better at updating while biking cross-country, but I swear, life is busy here. The biggest news of the day is that we bought a bread machine! It sounds a little ridiculous for a year abroad, I admit, but seriously, bread is a big part of life here, and seeing as it was only 49 euros, and we 5 colocs (=colocataires, roomies) certainly have already spent that much on bread, it was a bargain. Not to mention that unless Obama is elected, I never plan to come home...
Anyway, other than that, I have been working a lot this week, trying to catch up on things before the vacation that starts now. I made my short stories class read my old favorite, Angela Carter, which was loads of fun, and interesting, as the guys ended up liking her crazy feminist stories better than the girls in the class. Who'd a thunk it.
So tomorrow morning bright and early I leave with three of the roomies to the organic goat farm where James WOOFed (international organization, which lets you Work On an Organic Farm) before arriving in Lyon. I am absurdly excited, and plan to post pictures upon my return. We will be there until Tuesday, and then Tuesday night I leave on a sleeping train from Lyon to Florence, where I will hang with Erin, and surround myself with art, gelato, and pasta. Check back in a week or so for more stories!

Aix Les Bains etc

Life was good this weekend. It was the most amazing Indian summer. On Saturday we went to Aix les Bains, a charming town by the largest lake in France, where we found a market, ate by the lake, and walked all over town. Sunday we went to Vieux Lyon to walk around and enjoy the weather while it lasted. Since I haven't yet uploaded the photos from that adventure, accept this one of Puy en Velay, where we went last weekend to see an old cathedral, a huge Mary statue on a hill (photo) and a cool monastery way up on a strange pointy mountain.
Now it is raining, and I feel like I am behind in lesson planning as usual. I have a lot of respect for teachers, I can't believe how hard it is to keep all the classes straight and try to remember everyone's individual questions and schedule conflicts etc! I like to think I am starting to get the hang of it, but I have a feeling this whole semester is going to be a little hairy. I am constantly just barely staying ahead of the game, and still getting used to my materials and finding good resources and struggling with the many technologies of the language lab and teaching myself the ins and outs of English grammar at least well enough to come up with answers to the many questions that inevitably come up in class. I can't believe how complicated English grammar seems, full of exceptions and nuances as every language is, I suppose. I am currently making up my very first test! Oh, the power...

On y va!

So I have been meaning to start a French blog, because I am busy and/or lazy I can't respond to individual emails. But having had a cast and brace and such on my wrist until this week, it hasn't happened until now. In case you missed the story, I was riding my sweet french bike that I bought used from this awesome old guy, when suddenly this kid whipped out on his scooter from behind a bus stop to cross the street without looking. I swerved hard in order to avoid him, but I took the fall instead. So I fractured my wrist in early September which was unfortunate, but I got to witness the French socialized health care system up close, and had pretty good experiences. It was interesting to have a cast for the first time, and it was exceeding awkward to try to teach myself to be a lefty, but I am newly free wristed and loving it. It still hurts if I put a lot of weight on it, so I try not to and it seems fine.

So life is Lyon is really awesome. Teaching is a little terrifying because it turns out I am essentially a college professor. I teach three courses, six sections in all, and I was given the course titles and then was told to run along and create my own lesson plans, find all my own materials and etc. Considering my students are college and grad students attending the most prestigious university in France, this is kind of intense. It's tons of work, and I still feel sort of overwhelmed by the whole thing. I spend most of the time trying to appear basically intelligent and rapidly overcoming any fears of public speaking which I may formerly have suffered. And when I am well-prepared, which is much the time, I really do love it, so it has its own rewards.

My living situation could hardly be better. My room is huge, I have my own bathroom and little balcony. My roomies here (a Tunisian, a Brit, a Canadian and my colby friend) are amazing, we are great friends and do almost everything together. We take turns cooking family dinners every night, and hang out with a bunch with a ragtag band of International and French students we have befriended. Lyon is beautiful, there is the most glorious park/zoo/botanical garden (see photo), beautiful old historic silkweaving sections, great museums, restaurants, etc. There are great bike and pedestrian paths all along the Rhone River, the markets are always fun, and we have been exploring the larger French countryside, and generally revelling in all things (especially gastronomically) French.

I will post some photos also to get started on a good foot, and post any questions you have! Thanks for reading,
Charlotte