Movie of Miette

Hopefully you can now see this little movie of Miette right here on my blog. Let me know what you think! This is her telling, in french, about a game she plays with her classmates at school recess.

Ludotheque

Today we discovered an amazing thing La Rochelle has to offer- The Ludothèque! This is a game and toy lending library! We got ourselves membership cards and checked out some toys! One can go there and play on site with anything- they have hundreds of "jeux de société" (board games) and puzzles plus tricycles, rollerblades for kids, stilts, toy kitchens, trucks, dolls, castles, you name it! Julian fell head over heels with a castle set including knights and horses in full armor with lances, swords, axes and a prison in the castle building. Miette chose a castle building block set. And I had just the other day been lamenting not having any blocks here! They even have KAPLA blocks, just like the ones we have waiting for us in Chicago upon our return! So we have a place to go play on chilly winter days and a constant source of new playthings! Maybe this will be my mission when we come back, to establish a Ludothèque in Chicago- it's very environmental too!

Above pictures are: kids at home, our friend Steph with Miette, Julian having a turn with the pedal horses at the park today, Miette at the old towers in the center of town by the port, and the back view of the beautiful church which is what we see through our windows and balcony.

School Updates

Today Miette said "I like it here!" followed by a qualifier of "of course I still love Chicago and miss it too" but obviously she was showing some spontaneous contentment with life in La Rochelle. Kids will be kids. When the going gets rough, they won't like it here, and when it's good they'll love it. Miette has also informed me that she and a boy in her class (Antoine) are in love with each other. I said "Why are you in love and how do you know he's in love with you too?" and she gave me all these examples of how her gives her his marbles, leans back into her lap when they are sitting outside together etc. etc. Though it is kind of funny it is also so sweet. Too young to be self-concious about "love"... And also feeling close enough with her classmates to have that kind of attachment! I am so happy with how school is going for her.

Julian still has his ups and downs but we're definitely getting more ups. All the big girls at school love him to pieces. They are always trying to hold his hand, hug him and care for him. When the mamas come to pick up their kids and wait outside for the gate to be opened I spy on him playing in the courtyard and see what he's up to. It's great to get those litle snippets of how he plays because its so hard for him to tell me about his day, it all gets jumbled together with other days and times. Today had a slightly rough beginning but ended up going swimmingly. He was unhappy going for morning drop-off because he didn't want to stay for lunch (which he had to because i have a class to get to during that time) and then when we arrived at school I realized that I had completely forgotten about the field trip they were taking that day. I knew a new event on top of an unhappy drop-off would be a double whammy so I looked for Lili, the girl in the class that he "doesn't feel shy about" (his words) and asked her if she would stay with him, hold his hand and sit on the bus with him. She said okay and took his hand and he immediately was fine. The day went well, aside from not eating at the cantine again, and he told me he had another new friend, a boy that is always nice to him. Of course he doesn't remember the boy's name, but what are names anyway?! So I think he's finding friends and feeling more comfortable. Another good sign is that he is no longer chewing his sleeves! He had been coming home with his sleeve cuffs wet and stretched out from gnawing on them all day long and I haven't seen a wet sleeve in days.

As for me and school, The initial nervousness has worn off and the issues with some of the rowdier kids last week were already easier to deal with this week. I've been talking about Halloween all week- related vocabulary, telling how we do it in the States and a little history of the holiday. I included a picture of a princess in my Halloween flashcards figuring it's probably one of the most popular costumes for girls in the U.S. and someone asked why there was a princess- they were shocked to find out that we dress up in costumes other than witch, ghost, pumpkin, vampire, devil or monster! (They really got a kick out of hearing what Miette dressed up as in the past: hot-air balloon? house? flower? WHAT??) Halloween is sort of an a la carte holiday in France, some people do it but not all and I can't say I've seen a single decorated house anywhere. Miette has been hand making decorations for our house! Life is hard though, after my first 2 full weeks of work in the classroom, I have a 12 day holiday starting Saturday! Tough life, huh?

Funny story

Well, I'll start with the end first: I ate meat last night. Here's what happened. A girl named Stephanie from Australia (also here teaching english) has become a friend and the kids love her so she has come over the past three Tuesday evenings to watch them so I could go to this meditation group. It's lovely- the kids love her, get some time away from their mom and get to speak english and I get my meditation and an evening out of the house. So I head over to the meditation place and when I arrive the man who's setting up tells me it's a different meditation than their usual tchenrézi. Once a month when it's on or almost the full moon they do a ceremony for Milarepa which involves everyone bringing offerings of food and drink which are purified and shared at a certain point in the ritual. There are cakes resembling stupas, wine and juice, candies, cookies, crackers, cheese, and meat. He tells me there is a point where first you share a drink of wine and everyone takes a piece of meat and the idea is that after the rituel they are purified and therefore no longer considered alcohol or flesh. I say to the man, do you have to eat it, I am vegetarian, and his reply is well, you really should have a small piece at least because the idea is that in eseence it is all the same food, the same taste, and sharing in it is refraining from adversion or attachment to what one habitually does like or not like/eat or not eat. So I decide I better give it a go, not such a big deal right? It seems like the underlying principle has reason. Well, when the time came, they passed the wine, passed the meat (small pieces of someting steak-like) all very communion-esque as well, and eat my tiny piece. Actually I was amazed at how good it actually tasted when i was expecting to be revolted. But then they passed around more stuff and just gave you some of what was on each platter and you didnt choose what you got. Of course, I got a slice of some other meat, like prosciutto or some thin cured sliced kind of thing which I wasn't expecting to have and then really didn't want and had to rince that down quickly with some juice. So much for the "neither aversion nor attachment" thing! Everything else went fine and I came home, hung out with Stephanie a bit and then went to bed. Well a short later I woke up with the worst feelings in my digestive system! I wo't go so far as to say pain but it was not comfortable and I couldn't sleep for a bit. Immediately I said to myself, my body is revolting against this foreign substance! I suppose it could have been anything, even just the odd combo of many different foods eaten together but my conscience wasn't believing that! I don't think I'll be dipping my toes back into that water!! But I will admit, that little piece of steak was mighty tasty......

Market day, Rest day

Saturday morning while Miette was at school Julian and I finally made it to the central market which takes place Wednesdays and Saturdays. I really would have gone sooner but since the market days coincide with when the kid(s) are off school, it just always seemed like to much hassle. But I've been missing out! It is so beautiful and exemplifies the idyllic small town french lifestyle! There are heaps of gorgeous vegetables, fruits, nuts, and cheese from the region, butchers in the inner covered marketplace displaying animals with heads on and claws intact. There was a cow head in a glass case with parsley inserted in its nostrils. Roosters with feathered heads adorning plucked skin, whole skinned rabbits with visible eyeballs. Miilions of shelled creatures from the sea. Needless to say, I stuck to the veggies and cheese. I finally got my bright little strawberries, some fresh goat cheese, sheep cheese, and real parmesean. It was nice to think back to being in Paris and feeling so nervous when I would be at the market and not always know how to say exactly what or how much I wanted and now I can confidently ask whether it's okay to tear some celery or do you have to buy the whole thing? In other words, it feels good to be here speaking french without worries.

Later that day we were invited to the home of one of the teachers I'm working with for the "gouter" (snack time). When I looked up her address on my map it seemed to be a reasonable walking distance away so I pushed Jules in the stroller and Miette on her bike. Well, we ended up overshooting our mark, turning on the wrong street getting quite turned around and accidentally discovered a huge community garden area. But with the help of a passerby and some more map examining we finally made it to her house at least a half-hour late. But it was great, she has a ten year old daughter who played with Miette and they had a pet bunny in their backyard and we all got along really well. She just moved to La Rochelle this summer so is in a similar place as me, just getting settled in and looking for new people.

This morning we stayed home for a long time and just took it easy. Ryan just sent us all the legos that were still in Chicago and the kids are in heaven (aside from the squables about who found which piece first!). So while they played I cooked a pot of soup, caught up on New Yorkers (that Ryan also sent) and drank lots of tea. Eventually we made our way to the park where we run into everyone on Sundays, saw kids from Mimi and Jules' schools and chatted with a mom. It felt like a true traditional Sabbath sort of rest day. Slow, cozy, quiet and peaceful. And ended with bowls of lentil soup garnished with parmesean from the market and baguette from the bakery. So good night tranquil Sunday!

Le Manege

Yesterday evening on our way home the grand and magnificent carousel that we often pass, but is never open, was moving so with the few euro coins i scrounged from my pocket I indulged Julian in a long-coveted go round. Here are 2 photos of him and the carousel and also one of Miette and her new used bike.

Fall weather brings homesickness.

Well, autumn is usually a time of turning inward and stoking the home fires, preparing the nest for winter to come. In our case I think it is heightening the sense that France isn't really our home and there's a little heartache going around. I think now that the preliminary installation is over, the newness worn off, and all of our beloved are so far away it feels a bit lonely at the moment for all of us. Miette especially had a hard night tonight. She is especially missing her daddy and needing a friend. I think in part because she has been quite stoic and very resilient about things so far she's been sort of overdue for an emotional spell. After her crying jag the three of us all cuddled together in our pyjamas under the covers in the bottom bunk and read lots and lots of stories. Books are such constant friends!

Aside from that, I did have my first class today which was a piece of cake. I also used the bike that I got this weekend for the first time to get there and back and found it exciting to finally be able to zip around the city. There are hills here which is hard to get used to after biking only in eternally flat Chicago. The streets are about half as wide and though sometimes they have a bike lane, it still feels tight and somewhat intimidating. i also felt i crossed more territory in such a short time that the city seemed to open up to me in a new way. I'll have to use some of my morning free time to do a little vélo-adventuring.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when I posted a request for people to send american "stuff" for me to use in my classes, I also would love to have some photos of everyone to put up in the apartment. I didn't bring any and feel like we need a little altar here to friends and family. It would mean a lot to us!

Birthday party and bike

Today Miette was invited to the birthday party of her classmate Apolline. I called to see how they "do parties" here and whether parents usually stay or not and how many kids would be going and was given an open invitation to stay or go as I wished. I ended up staying. This family does not live in the neighborhood, which is rare, so I got to see a different area of town and got to know some other fellow parents as well beyond the everyday pleasantries. There were about 10 french kids all from her class and a couple other parents stayed for the whole party like me. The kids played in the back garden for a couple hours then had cake, opened presents and then made things with clay at the end. I was impressed because they had real clay! The kids had fun until the moment when other parents were arriving to pick up their kids and Mimi and Jules started to melt down. Tired and blood sugar levels crashing, we got a ride home with another family back to our neighborhood. Miette had her usual Saturday half-day of school this morning and then she showered and dressed, ate lunch and headed out to find a present, went to the party and by the end of the day we were all ready to crash. But regardless, it felt good to spend a weekend day with other kids and families. For the sake of the kids, I really need to put myself out there to make rendez-vous for the kids on days off school so its not always just us getting stuck in a routine and to help them be closer with other kids their ages.Apolline's parents are closer to my age than the average of most other parents at La Genette, artistic, and well dressed...... her father is a graphic designer and her mother used to own 2 children's consignment boutiques so we have a lot in common with each other!

Well I too am exhausted now, not so much from a long day but it's getting late here now and I need to take care of myself so I'm "en pleine forme" for starting real teaching this week! Next time I write, I'll have to share more details on the different classes, school, and teachers wth whom I'll be working . There are some pretty drastic differences between them all.

Photos

Photos are of the kids feeding the goats, street signs, the kids at the kitchen table drawing, and one of the schools (Valin) in which I'll be working (it is a very old building in the center of town and I particularly appreciate the beautiful benches in front).

Sunday in the Park

This weekend we spent most of our time in the two parks nearby, each on either side of where we live. One is called Parc Franck Delmas and the other is Parc Charruyer. Parc Charuyer has a sort of mini-zoo in it with ponys, goats, deer, peacocks and other exotic birds. The kids spent an extremely long time feeding leaves and sticks to the goats who apparently eat anything. This was a very absorbing activity for Mimi and Jules and just about every other kid that came through. We took a brief detour through the amusement section as you leave the park but before you reach the beach where they have bumper cars, a kid train, mini-golf and other such activities. The kids each got to pick one activity so Miette did bumper cars and Julian did the train. I had a coffee! On our way home, we stopped in to check out a sweet little chocolate shop/patisserie where they make their own chocolates and everything in house and also their gorgeous cakes (Miette noted that they had a chess cake in the cooler complete with molded chocolate chess pieces and declared that that is what she would like her birthday cake to be!)

On Saturday when we were at the other park we ran into a teacher who works at one of the school where I'll be teaching. I won't be in her class but I had eaten lunch with all the teachers and met her then. She lives in a neighborhood on the other side of the park and had come there with her husband and three girls- 8, 6, and 3 years old. We chatted for a long time and got along really well as did Miette with their 8 year old daughter. The dad was amazed because Miette spoke to him in french and he couldn't believe how capable she was! I have to say everytime french comes out of her mouth with this beautiful little accent I can't really believe it's her!

It looks and feels like autumn here now. The trees are tinged with color and there are all kinds of nuts and leaves blanketing the ground. We are finding so many varieties of acorn-like things here that resemble something you might find in the States but yet are not at all the same. There are also marrons (kind of like buckeyes) and chaitagnes (chesnuts) and then exactly like the US, stinky ginko fruits. Nature feels more present and powerful here- from the spiders coming into the house to the vines creeping out of courtyards and over walls. In many ways Chicago is a very green city too but somehow the traffic, congestion, and population density seem to overwhelm the natural elements. Now that we have a balcony, we can just open the door for the weather report too. The kids do this every morning!

This neighborhood has a very small town sense to it. Every morning we see the same people walking their kids to school and picking them up as we do. My landlord and other people I've met with dogs come walking them in the evening in the grassy spot behind our apartment on the balcony side so if I am out there I see them. The bakery (right across the street) owners' daughter is in Miette's class. Many of the teachers from her school live in the neighborhood and we cross paths on days off school. One day last weekend we joined a family whose son is in Julian's class at school in an excursion to the nearby beach. The path to get there cuts through Parc Franck Delmas and there we ran into the family who had invited us all to our first dinner party. They were playing rugby and had just had guests arrive from Norway and since they were wanting to show them the area, they joined us as well. Then when we arrived at the beach, we saw 2 girls from Miette's class at the beach with their families and with whom Miette went off to play. So if you get the idea....it's a small world here already.

So I suppose in terms of actual news, the main thing that is new is me starting to actually be in the schools. So far we've gone in only for observations of the teachers with whom we'll be working. As it turns out I am going to be in 4 different schools: La Genette (Miette's school), Valin, Puilboreau, and Paul Doumer. It has been quite opening to get to watch all these differents classes and teachers in action. It's really the insider view. So far as I can tell from my experience with Miette being in school and my past education, things are pretty different here! The teachers are very strict and everything is very exacting. The kids have meticulous handwriting at a very young age and everything they do has to done with a ruler. For example, in their "cahiers" (different notebooks for each subject) the pages are gridded (narrower spaces horizontally and wider vertically) so they can measure the height of each letter. When the teacher writes the date and a subject or lesson on the board, she specifies how many squares in and down they must count to place their title and on which line they need to create a line with their rulers to delineate the title from the subject matter. After the have done an exercise, they correct it together as a group and they have to use a different color to note their corrections which must be made (crossed out) with their ruler> EVERYTHING is with a ruler! You can tell that good work habits and neatness are high priorities. I now understand why Miette was especially stressed out about her handwriting.But I diverge.... Basically, being there watching the teachers has been fascinating and I would spend all year watching and taking notes for a comparative thesis on educational systems (then Id have to spend equal time doing the same in the States). The reality is that next week it will be me up there hoping the kids are interested in what I can offer and that I can keep the creative juices flowing for different ways of presenting the english language to these kids! So far all the kids in these classes seem to be excited to meet someone new that isn't from here, like Thierry said, we are kind of like Martians to them!

Maybe now would be a good moment to also put out a call for lots of american paraphanelia to be sent to me !!! I am supposed to be not only working with language but teaching about my culture so if I can bring in "original" stuff from the U.S. to use as props and points of departure for particular subjects it would be great. So if whoever is reading could kindly send me even just a postcard of the city where you live, a menu from a restaurant/take-out place, a local newspaper, a small flag, historical info or pop culture stuff WHATEVER it is that seems american to you- SEND IT TO ME!!! (especially for the realms in which I am totally ignorant like football and baseball- so totally american and yet I'd be at a total loss for words trying to explain any of "our" sports!) feel free to offer ideas of things to present regarding culture and history as well!

the weekend

on saturday (when miette has a half day at school, technically julian can go to school too but the maitrese said most kids don't come). petra, the dutch woman that has befriended me recently and with whose daughter miette has become friends, invited me to come over while they were at school to help dye her hair! julian came and played with their toys which is very exciting for him since we have so few toys here and he is already tiring of them. so, i hung out with her and had coffee and tea and dyed her hair and talked all morning. her family is moving back to the netherlands next friday which is too bad since she has been very easy to get along with and very welcoming but she has also introduced me to other moms and told them to take care of me now! one of those moms is marianne who is her closest friend here and i was also invited to marianne's house this afternoon for coffee. so much coffee! anyway, i met her partner (they're not married but have 2 kids together) and he was actually who invited me to come over and got to see yet another beautiful little paradise home in la rochelle. they have this amazing courtyard which is contained by their house on three sides and a fence/wall on the other. They have grapes and figs growing out there and i ate 2 figs straight from the tree. also antoine, the dad/partner, prepared a little dish of figs cooked in wine and sugar to go with the coffee. their place reminds me a little of bob bingham and kathryn sitter's place in pittsburgh. antoine is a menuisier, someone who works with wood (he said it's not exactly charpentier, like carpenter, but i looked in the dictionary and we don't have another translation. anyway...) and he and marianne have done all the work on the house themselves. it has that handbuilt beauty and things still in progress plus the general disorder of children and other things all togther in a jungle like tangledness. i'm already jealous of everyone's quaint old homes with these amazing gardens and courtyards! (caroline, the norweigan woman that invited us for dinner last weekend also had an amazing courtyard and when i went out to dinner on my birthday with the erards i got a little tour of their house which is the biggest by far and on which they have also done some work themselves but is a little less wild and quaint with more of a modern polished quality. i prefer the older and less polished ones myself!)

so, already things are getting busier, seeing and meeting more people, and soon starting my job. i had a whole list of things i though we would have gotten done today and haven't gotten to any of them since we chose to go visit people. tomorrow is the vide-grenier for the neighborhood (garage sale, literally, empty-attic!) which is right outside our back window in the place de l'eglise. i am going to look for a used bike, bike seat for jules, kids clothes, and any other little things of interest. if nothing else, it will be interesting to see what kind of things french people drag out of their closets for their garage sales! angelique, my neighbor in the studio apartment next door, said she got sweet little set of coffee cups last year for 5 euros. i think they may have little food stands too.

i met two more assistants yesterday as well. thierry stopped by here to bring me flowers (potted cyclamen) for my birthday and to introduce them- a girl from new york and another from australia. i told them to come by tomorrow for the vide-grenier and kind of invited them to have lunch or something. so there will be another american after all! i actually have met all but one of them now and it seems like a nice group.

miette is speaking more french every day. petra said she heard her saying a lot in french while playing with emma. i think it's already helping her out in school, i think she really gets most things. I also find myself speaking to the kids in french if i'm with someone french and have been in conversation my brain goes into french mode and it's just the first thing that comes out.

petra was also comenting on how miette had made all these clothes for the bear aunt patti sent her out of only paper and tape and how resourceful and inventive kids are, especially given our situation and how little we actually brought with us- she is using her creativity and the materials she finds to come up with things to do. she has also been collecting snails (real live ones) and making little homes for them including plant matter etc for their environments.