Dinner au Lycee Mariette

Fish, mussels, pizza, chicken, pork, rabbit, and omelettes are just a few of the entrees we've enjoyed here at the lycee. Thats not to mention the many that we've eaten without knowing what they are exactly. I'm always so impressed with the food served for lunch and dinner here. The assistants can enjoy, for just 2 euro 30, a starter, soup, an entree, something from the salad bar, a dessert, and if you like a Stella or red wine. I've talked with one French student who studied abroad in the U.S. was so disappointed with American school lunches, and so hungry!

You maybe can notice in the pictures that lately I've had a tendancy to throw on some beets to whatever starter I chose at any given dinner, ie beets on my mozzerella and tomatoes, and beets on my... I can't remember what that other small side was.

The choices for dessert are always plentiful and tastey, but sadly this isn't evident from the two pictures I took, literally the only two dinners I passed on a sweet! My favorite so far is une religieuse cafe... just to help you imagine its deliciousness:

The only confusion we have now with dinner (besides not knowing what food we're eating) is planning on who's free for dinner. My friend Richard, from Newcastle, says we can meet for dinner and I say yes, dinner at the cafeteria thats wonderful. Only problem is, I mean dinner and Richard means lunch. If he wanted to meet for dinner he'd say tea and if he meant lunch he'd say dinner. Meanwhile our German friend Mareike is just enjoying listening to the Anglophones being confused by their own language.

a good day for mail

Un joli cadeau de ma mere! (A pretty gift from my mom!) Un collier inspiré par coco chanel, je l'aime.

Sunday morning market by the water

It seems every time I turn around in this town I run into a new market. They're everywhere! It's always a nice surprise. This morning I came across one by the port, next to the fish stands. One stand sold freshly caught raw oysters with a supply of lemons so you can eat some while you stroll around. Seemed a little early in the day to eat raw oysters when I was there, so I'll have to plan it better next time so I can see how they compare to the delicious raw oysters I had at the Jersey shore a few summers ago.

A Saturday in Lille

I spent a nice fall Saturday wandering around Lille with my German, British, and American friends. The rain made a chilly welcome to the city in the morning but it was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. I read somwhere that people come to Lille to shop, and now I know why. There is pedestrian street, after pedestrian street, after pedestrian street of shops.

There was also every type of food imaginable. Soo many tempting, and then some not-so tempting...

I loved this flower shop, Au nom de la rose.

What would a trip to a French city be without a protest? We got to see hundreds of members of the Partie Communiste Francaise march all over this city while their band played some happy tunes from the back of a pickup truck.

je suis un happy camper à lille

While I was walking around town this morning I noticed there's really something to be said for shutters that actually work. I consider it my goal to own a house one day with functioning shutters, and I won't rest until the day I can call such a house my home. And if this must be a summer home in the south of France, well it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Rendez-vous au L'esprit d'Hélène

The 5 language assistants were treated to a trendy but tastey dinner by the English, Spanish, and German teachers of Lycee Mariette. Why trendy, you ask? Well, as the assistants were looking over the menu in confusion we asked one English teacher, Julien, what exactly we were eating. So as he read down the menu, it went something like this, "Uhhhh, I don't know, I don't know, this one is served on celery, uhh this is some chicken from the farm that is to say not a factory, uhhh I don't know, and ah here mignardises that is small individual varied cakes, so you can have different kinds, but it's a in fact new word, one my mother wouldn't know... Bahh [not exactly sure how to type that weird noise you hear so often here] these are new trendy words, and I'm no chef so I can't say what we are eating!" It appears it's not just the foreigners who don't understand the French menu.

Still it was a great meal with lots of French, English, German and Spanish spoken all at the same table. Sitting down to a nice long five course meal, I would have thought the highlight is the the quantity and quality of food. But in fact the dinner really just was about conversation and learning about cultures and lives. The food, while delicious, just facilitated this rather than distracted from it. I'm always entertained by talk about languages and last night was no disappointment. I asked a native Boulogne(r?) to demonstrate the local accent, which they say to an expert is distinct from the amusing and confusing Chti'i accent in Lille. This demonstration just involved a lot of weird, funny kind of gargly noises and reminded me of tribes and maybe Africa more than a civilized city in France. One funny discussion was about the saying "the cat's got your tongue." I explained that you'd use this saying if the person you're talking to has the answer but can't find the words... or maybe just 'speak up.' I'd love to know how the change in the English saying and meaning occured from the French saying je done ma langue au chat/ I give my tongue to the cat. The French saying on the other means "I don't know." And then in Spain it's el gato te comio la lengua/the cat ate your tongue, meaning someone's delibritely keeping quiet. The whole experience was great but for us assistants it was passed our usual early bed time. Looking back though its probably been a good day if by the end of it you're very ready for bed and happy to sleep and start a new day tomorrow. Speaking of which that describes me pretty well right now, so good night and sleep tight!

La Manche

I've never been to England but I've seen it from France! Sadly I've heard thats its cold and rainy from October to April so England might not be hidden for the next few months. You can see a glimmer of la Manche (the English Channel) here from the fortified walls of the Old Town (not very good quality but its pretty in person!) There's something nice about living next to the English Channel, its something that always sounded familiar and far away at the same time.

Unrelated but noteworthy in my book, I learned tonight that merci in response to an offer made by someone else could mean either no thanks or yes please. It depends on body language and if thats not clear than it probably means no. Fortunately I had a teacher from the high school on hand to explain this when the server passed me by on a glass of water. If only I always had a Frenchie there to explain this little quirks. But, live and learn I suppose, c'est la vie. Et bon nuit!

bon weekend

After a lonnnngggg day of work on Friday, I was ready for a weekend. Well, really I only worked from 11-12 on Friday and it was actually one of the highlights of my time so far here in France. The teacher, M. Gojat was really welcoming with his smart Oxford accent... he's never been to England which shows what some hard work can accomplish when it comes to learning a language. The 10 or so students were equally friendly and very interested in asking me questions. They ranged from 17-21 years in age, and have studied English for many years I believe but never with an American accent so I got a mixture of blank stares and incredulous looks after I introduced myself... except for one proud student who understood some of what I said. Everyone was allowed to ask one question of me, that was entertaining. The funniest may have been if I have ever met Barack Obama, which they were sad to hear I haven't.

It was a gray, gusty, cold weekend in Boulogne, definetely a wake up call that it won't stay perfect all year. Despite the change in weather it was a nice one. Mareike, the German language assistant, Richard, and I missed a train to Lille where we had been planning on meeting other assistants from America. It wasn't a total loss since we went to Les Ramparts, where we can be found almost on a daily basis, and splurged from our usual order and got dinner. My first taste of escargot was not a disappointment, unlike the salmon... there is no way that was salmon! But it was fun and its nice to be regulars somewhere. We get to listen to the tourists from England and hear from Richard where they come from. Its a nice opportunity to practice my British. On our return we were surprised to see another assistant, Julia, had arrived. We were sure she didn't really exsist but it turns out she had been sick at home for the week. She went to university here in Boulogne last year so we'll have somewhere to show us the ropes now! Today we saw UP! (La-haut) at the cinema and came across a large market in the street that must occur every Sunday. I had my usual pain au chocolate, but next time we'll go for the barbe a papa (cotton candy, or father's beard as they say in French!) We also sat down by the port and watched all the sea gulls, and people selling their fresh catches for the day... I didn't realize people would sell or buy for that matter, sting ray.