Novembre

Well, November has just slipped by!  I’ve had some really great times with the kids and my assistant friends here. 

First off, a couple weeks ago I went to Lyon with some other assistants: Maura, Harry and Raul.  They stayed there for three nights but I was only there for two of them because I work Fridays but they don’t.  I loved Lyon!  It was such a great city and it was so nice to be in a big town again!  Ah, I even had a white mocha from this little local bagel shop.  We were lucky that the Saturday we were there happened to be one the nicest days in November.  It was barely even jacket weather.  We ended up drinking our coffee by the Saône (one of the two rivers that cuts through Lyon) and it was so relaxing.  Lyon is old and very authentically French.  It was like Paris in that there were tons of people but it was better because it was more spread out and instead of being really international, I only heard French the entire time I was there.  It wasn’t just an international touristy town; it’s where the French go on vacation. 

The view of Lyon from the top of this HUGE hill we had to climb.

 

Me, Raul, Harry, and Maura.

 We went out both nights in Lyon and it was so great to be places with so many young people again!  On the second night, we met up with a French guy that Maura knew from when she studied abroad in Montpellier.  He showed us around with his friends and showed us these night clubs that are on docked ships on the Rhône River.  We were a little too exhausted to go on them by the time we got around to seeing them but it’s a really cool idea.  So, nobody was exactly thrilled to come back to Blois on Sunday where the city sleeps by 9pm every night.

Thanksgiving was a total success in that we made an “American Week” out of it.  Each day this week has been some sort of event leading up to the dinner on Thursday. 

oooh  baby.

I ended up making cookies, a sweet potato dish that my mom always makes, and a pumpkin pie.  It took most of the afternoon on Wednesday to make everything but I got to hang out with Valérie and her kids while I was cooking.  They were very happy about the cookies (which I gave them half the batch) and not so impressed by the idea of either sweet potatoes or pumpkin pie.  They never have them in sweet sugary dishes so I think they were a little grossed out by the idea of that.  Regardless, they were a hit at our dinner for assistants and my sweet potatoes were gone pretttty fast.  Everyone brought different dishes which was cool because then we got to try everyone’s family favorites.  Mac & Cheese now needs to be an official Thanksgiving dish because I had the best ever made by Sharae.  We were anxious about if we could find turkeys here but we found them a little outside the city at a huge supermarket.  We ended up with two turkeys: one spicy Cajun and one with French seasoning.  Definitely had a food coma.

It snowed a little on Thanksgiving and melted before noon but my students were still really stirred up by it.  It was a horrible day teaching because they were impossible to rein in which was great timing because I was already not feeling great about missing home.  Fortunately, the great dinner and time I had later with my Blois family really helped me not feel so homesick.

Teaching Thanksgiving to my students was really enjoyable actually.  It was very humorous in the beginning because they all thought that Thanksgiving was just another Christmas and that we give gifts, eat, and dance!  I had to be the bearer of bad news and say that it’s mainly just a meal and a sentiment of feeling thankful.  They got the gist of it and were very sweet about asking if I’d miss it this year.

I start my winter holiday/Christmas unit on Monday and I’m excited for the next three weeks.  As soon as I was done working on Friday, I went to the French equivalent of a Target and bought a little tree for my desk with ornaments and other things I was swayed to buy.  Of course, I played the Carpenters Christmas album and trimmed the tree.  I am now officially ready to start thinking Christmas.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I just want to say to everyone reading this how thankful I am for all of you.  Even in spite of the distance where we are very far apart, you make it seem not so far.  I couldn’t and wouldn’t be here without you.  Thank you so much!

‘Ap-ee Sanks-geev-eeng!  (as the French would say)

Bisous,

Em