Limoges November

Canteen life

My favorite yaourt

So once a week I eat at my school's canteen. It's a large and scary flashback into my own time I spent at the middle school cafeteria.  Plastic trays, buckets of utensils, running gossipy children all around. However instead of the free for all cafeteria style of different lines for different menu options, pizza, fries, chips, chicken fingers, soda fountain, milk station, cookie station etc, there's one line for the one meal planned for that day.  Everyone waits in one line and for the five course (or more) meal. Check out what I ate for lunch the other Friday.

First course: grapefruit and banana
second course: mushroom quiche
main course: huge fried calamari (didn't want it didn't have a choice), rice and green beans
bread course: bread and cheese
dessert: lil custard creation
apres dessert: yogurt

note: Everyone eats everything, no changing options or refusing. It's noted and looked down upon. French people have supergenes.
Oh and it was 2.50 euros.

Wwoofing

I spent the last ten days wwoofing (organic farming) with my friend at an old house outside Libourne (outside Bordeaux). It was such an amazing experience. I built walls (yes wielded a heavy shovel) and mortar-ed (toxic), cooked, sang, and danced with great people. My feelings are too cheesy to post so here are some pictures!

Public Piscines

Just when you think you are mature and wise enough to navigate a public swimming pool..you aren't.  Oh hey vending machine selling bathing suits! Oh...no lanes? Totally normal. It's a free for all in there.  Speedos are required for safety reasons...which are?

Pot de Rentree

Two nights ago we had a “pot de rentree” for all the residences of Saint Martial.  It was very much like the ice cream socials you had in your dorms to meet the resident dean and RA’s. But we actually went. It took place in the hallway/entranceway to the building. I may have noted this before but all the lights in the Saint Martial building are on timers. You push to turn it on. Wait 10 seconds it goes off. This occurred for the total of this little gathering which added much awkwardness to conversation.  It was like a very slow, delayed strobe light. However the warm banana juice, orange juice and some little treats helped somewhat.

Weeks Two and Three

Crazy themed crepe place

AHHHH AQUARIUMS ARE AWESOME

Teaching

I am almost finished with my second full week of teaching. During the first week I had twelve classes of introductions. Introductions meant I said a few things about myself and the children followed up by asking lots of questions. Some of the questions I have been asked about myself and/ or the US include:

What is your favorite star?

What is your sign?

What is your defect?

Is it cold there?

Do you know Justin Beiber? Do you know Rhianna? Do you see them a lot?

Do you like hamburgers?

Do you like to eat a lot?

Do you like house music?

Where do you live? Where do you live here? Where.

Do you know Obama?

Do you have a boyfriend?

After talking about myself for a week and being scrutinized by twelve year olds I was ready to get to teaching. Alas, not before I went back and corrected all they had written down about me.

But this second week has been great so far. We typically do fun activities like songs, skits, and do word searches. This weeks activities were mostly related to Halloween as they don’t really celebrate it here.  The kids are typically very eager, crazy hyper, and enthusiastic.  It really takes me back to middle school French classes.

One of the English teachers at my school was so welcoming and invited me to dinner at her home with her family last Friday.  I got to try a traditional Limousin dish and even had homemade Tiramisu!  They are a very interesting family –they lived in Bahrain for 10 years and their son is studying to be a perfume maker (not really sure the correct term for this). They were so unbelievably nice and I had a great experience in my first French home.