...et le Français!

After the children sang, the adults all gathered together (informally) and continued to sing for an hour or so. First in Occitan (as it is still practiced in this corner of France) and then they sang this one, in French, but it still carries the tune and harmonies of the old Occitan songs. In this video, the man in the large sweater is Dennis, to whom I give English lessons, the mayor of Tarbes, wearing the blue tie and suit, and the director of Jean Moulin (when I pan to the right), M Peyrot whose CM2 class I teach and who I think resembles Poppie :)

Vive l'Occitan

Occitan is the original language of southern france. I had the chance to attend an evening of music at the Mairie (town hall) where I saw some of my students from Jean Moulin sing this song about a man who is head over heels in love with a woman who does not want him... in the end he says he will go drown himself over her and she replys, 'well, should you go drown yourself, all you will be is drowned' I got a kick out of it :)

Emploi du Temps

	Lundi/Monday	Mardi/Tuesday	Mercredi/Wednesday	Jeudi/Thursday	Vendredi/Friday
8h
9h	Sendère CM1 (9h-9h45)	Sendère CM2 (9h-9h45)		Debussy CE1 (9h-9h45)
10h	Sendère CM2 (9h45-10h30)	Sendère CM1 (9h45-10h30)		Debussy CE2 (10h-10h45)
11h		Sendère CE1 (11h15-12h)		Debussy CM1 (10h45-11h45)
12h	Lunch with Suzanne
13h
14h	Jean Moulin CM2 (14h-14h45)	Sendère CE2 (14h-15h)		Jean Moulin CE1 (14h-14h45)
15h		Sendère CE1 (15h-15h45)		Jean Moulin CE1 (14h45-15h30)
16h				Jean Moulin CM2 (15h30-16h15)
17h
#'s		Sendère 05.62.93.12.87	Jean Moulin 05.62.93.21.70	Debussy 05.62.44.15.06

Back in the Swing

7 November 2009

Another rainy day in Tarbes. The weather was beautiful through the end of Octover, and even the 1st of November I was walking around in a t-shirt. But now all the skiiers and snowboarders are getting what they prayed for... snow on the mountains.
As I walk south towards one of my schools, Debussy, its as if I'm driving SE on Rand road. It seems the road I'm on will lead right to the tallest landmark if I just keep going. But rathe rthan the SEars Tower, I hav the Pic du Midi. Now she is crowned in all her glory with a thin layer of white - but everyday it continues to rain, I can be sure that she is one day closer to a BLANKET of white (update: its sunny and beautiful... the snow falls on the mountain but its sunny and warm here in Tarbes as I finally make this post weeks later), and I am one day closer to a sore bottom!
My new friends here are convinced that they will get me on board for a weekend of skiing in the mountains... I told them, "only if there's an afternoon of jacuzzi lounging prévu at the end!" I think they'll be willing to accomodate.
There is a spa, Aquensis, in one of the local towns. Sarah said she went a couple times last year and that it was fabulously relaxing, especially in winter - as there's a solarium with an all-glass roof, and you lay in the warmth while you watch the snow fall down 'on top' of you... ahhhhhhhh.
So as for right now, I'm back on track from a week-long break (the French really know how to do it - 5 to 6 weeks of work/school, 15 days of vacation, rinse and repeat). My school/teaching schedule changed a bit (see posted schedule: Emploi du Temps) but only for Thursday afternoon, and this makes far more sense.
Its been a while since I gave any updates on my living situation, as it was, I needed out of Natalia's place ASAP, told the landlord at 56 rue Georges Lassalle such, and also told him that if he didn't have the repairs done on the studio so that I could move in BEFORE Thursday, that I would find something else... Well, that lazy man made some calls, ending in a "tuileur" coming to replace the broken roof "tuiles" Tuesday, Octover 27.
It had rained during the night so the roof was slick - so apparantly the tuileur fell and twisted something, but would be back to finish the job later that afternoon... HA! I had to call M Estrade, the propriétaire (landlord) three times to get that news! Wednesday arrives... is it fixed? can I get a key and move my things in? No. The tuileur is coming back later today to finish, but I'm going out of town till Friday morning. I can give you the keys and sign the papers then, that's pretty soon, you can wait, right?... As I was on the phone with him, feeling fed-up, I was seeing apartments at 3 Cours de Reffye, another building in town which is directly across from M Estrade's office and also very close to Place de Verdun. So I reminded Estrade that I had told him that I needed to be out of Natalia's BEFORE Thursday, to which he said, well Friday morning is not too late. I told him I'd call him back. What a jerk!
Right then and there, I turned, faced teh lovely elderly lady whose name I still do not know, and told her I'd be moving in that very evening!
There are six liveable apartments in the building, and only one other tenant - a handsome young French man named Florent (who I never see because he is either looking for work during the day or is out with his fiancée at night - he moved to Tarbes to be with her, ahhh French romance!) So in moving here, I really had my pick of the lot! I chose a bright little studio on the 3ème étage aka 4th floor, with a blue tiled bathroom and a red dusty rug in the mainroom. Its a studio, probably about 25m2 or about 260ft2 that looks out on a courtyard... a rather disorderly courtyard. But being that I'm on a relatively high floor I have no one looking in on me and I get to look out over the broken tiled rooftops. This is my little piece of France, and I love it.
Little by little I'm feeling more at home here - decorating, cooking, and hosting my new friends for apéros (apératifs or cocktails and snacks). I bought myself a little oven yesterday for 30euros and a magnificent, thick, long sweater that I'm using as my robe (doubles for having guests over as a house coat!) and I'm avoiding stepping outdoors in today's rain by putting both to good use. I'm doing my favorite things, in my favorite outfit: cooking and baking in my pajamas (while wearing my new wonderful slippers -thank you Mom- my new wonderful sweater, and a rather new beautiful apron with poppies on it)
Today's lunch menu: Home-baked beer-pretzels (currently the dough is rising as I write) and a spicy low-fat egg salad with dijon mustard, no mayo (mayo is yucky), broccoli, and shredded carrot, and some camembert and brebis afterwards (I wouldn't be living the French life if I didn't have a cheese course, now would I?) Lunch will probably be served at my little table by the kitchen windwo overlooking the courtyard around 2, as I did not get out of bed until 11 and them made tea and got back in for a bit! Beads of moisture frost my window from the inside as I work away at warming the apartment with my cooking and the wind works away at cooling the town.
Tonight I will be going to Sarah's for crepes and have prepared a bottle of Fraise Tagada... Haribo candy mixed days before with vodka so the candy melts and creates a fantastic bright pink concoction - but I have added some grapefruit and orange juice so its not as strong, but still extremely pretty! I think that this evening there will be about 7 or 8 people at Sarah's studio (update: there were about 20 as people brought friends). Included in the mix are a Chilean, a Colombian, and Irish girl, two United Statesians, two French guys, and maybe even a guy from Turkey and one from Romania. These are my friends, and although we're very different, we come together over a love of cultural exchange, good food, and good spirits!

Git R Done!

Emma and I were soo tired! ... and it was only halfway!

Emma, Sarah, and I International Club (potluck)

For the last two weeks I have been living with Natalia, the Chilean assistant, in her tiny studio above Sarah's. On this floor of the building lives one other girl, Pauline, a French art student, and my empty apartment.

Q: Why is my apartment empty? Why don't I live there?

A: There is a leak in the roof that was supposed to be repaired by now, after which the kitchen/dining area would have been repainted by now, and the laminate floor redone... by now.

So, I am resolved to start looking for another apartment, if not to live in, at least to threaten this lazy landlord into quickening his pace.

Can't remember if I mentionned the address in the last post, so here it is again:

56 rue Georges Lassalle

65000 TARBES

I'm making friends. :) I've been attending the get-togethers of the ENI's (local engineering school) international club. We meet Tuesday nights at a bar called the Celtic for a beer, and since I have been here we've done two other events: an international potluck and a day of hiking in the Pyrenees! For the potluck, I made potato skins with extra cheese, bacon, and of course, butter, and as to the hiking... Illinois just falls FLAT on preparing a girl for the sort of treks these guys are used to!

We drove directly south of Tarbes through Bagneres to get to where we would start (this was just this past Sunday - Oct 11) and we parked the car at about 9h45. It was chilly, so I was wearing a tank, tee, and jacket, along with jeans and my nikes. The entire outfit changed nearly 3 hours later of, what I called at some points more, climbing! The scenery was beautiful: beginning with a forest in green and fall colors; the leaves coating the rocky trail; large boulders strewn about and covered with thick green moss. There were little trickles of water everywhere, making everything very lush and wet. As we were in the mountains, there was really no level walking, everything went up, up, up. And as we climbed we got hot, hot, hot! Everyone (except a few of the Colombians) was sweating beads, and when we stopped to take a break about halfway to our destination (a beautiful blue lake in a crater atop one of the mountains), you could see the sweat soaking through everyones' shirts where their backpacks had been. I was a hot sweaty mess! But I had plenty of water, and I just kept telling myself I could do it - personifying the Little Engine that Could.

We passed through a grazing area for horses and sheep, very Sound of Music looking, and finally made it to our rocky goal. The lake is called Lac Bleu for good reason... it IS very blue! Up at the top, the clouds were rolling in and out and around us, chilling us after the long hike, but a couple people still dared to hop in for a brief swim! We all brought changes of clothes, so at this point I got into some dry things to keep warm while we ate our packed lunches and skipped stones.

The way down was much easier! Thanks Newton! And while my knees, thighs, and buttocks were sore for a day afterwards, I felt very accomplished at having made the trek. I'm hoping to to do many similar treks in the Spring when the weather will again be permitting.

La Rentrée

I have made it to Tarbes.
After a crazy stint in Munich for Oktoberfest, I’ve arrived, fully exhausted and ready to be settled. While we didn’t spend the entire time partying at the tents, we did spend an awful lot of time befriending the local beers. When Allie and I arrived, on Wednesday, we stowed our bags in the lockers at the train station and headed into town to see what it was all about… Beer and Bretzels! (and radishes, cabbage, sausages, and beer – again for emphasis) Munich is home to four large breweries: Lowenbrau, Hofbrau, Paulaner, and Augustiner. These four brews are allowed to be served at Oktoberfest. Any beers produced outside of the city limits are not allowed to have a tent on the Therenweise. Munich’s beers are pure and natural, and that’s what provides them with the delicious tastes that keep people drinking more than 100,000 liters per day (and that’s only the count for ONE of the larger breweries!) The beers must only contain four ingredients: Water, Hops, Wheat, and Yeast. We learned this on the second day that we were in Munich when Allie, Geraldo, and I took a brewery and tasting tour. We also learned that in order for a beer garden to be official it must have mature chestnut trees and the people must be allowed to bring their own food. The trees: chestnut trees were planted in public serving areas in order to keep the beer cool as there were no refrigeration systems and the trees’ broad leaves provided shade for both the brew and the guests. The food: a king wanted it to be the case that all could go and enjoy a drink, rich and poor alike, and as beer was relatively affordable, but a meal was not, he ruled that people should be allowed to bring their own food if they like.
The next day, Friday, we took a tour to the town of Dachau, next to which was housed the Dachau concentration camp. Now the camp is a memorial with only two of the barracks standing, and the main building transformed into a sort of museum. While there exists a gas room at Dachau, it was never used, it was hardly necessary in any case as the men at the camp were mostly worked to death anyway. The camp did however install a supplementary facility with 4 extra ovens, to expedite the body burning process. This facility was kept on the outside of the fence so that the workers within might not know what was in store for them, but the ovens were always working overtime and the smell of burnt flesh was something the prisoners would miss. Inscribed on the entry gates is “work will set you free”. But as we all know, for all the work those punished as scapegoats during the holocaust were only set free by the allied forces, not their backbreaking labor.
When we returned from Dachau, we decided to do something light, so we took a beer at a large centrally-located beer garden and ate the sandwiches we packed earlier that day. We took it easy that night though (meaning we each drank only 2 liters each) and spent the rest of the evening just meandering around, trying German McDonalds (I tried a McChicken which had sweet chili sauce instead of mayo – yum!), and stopping for some gelato.
On Saturday we finally succeeded in meeting-up with Mary Bolling in the main plaza of Munich to take a tour of town, by bike… by bar… by a beer-bike-bar which we powered by peddling and were served by the guide as he ‘drove’ us around town at 5mph. It was only an hour and a half, but we really enjoyed this light-hearted tour of Munich and the guide’s comical take on the local history. After that, the rest of Saturday was a blur. We walked around the town, walked through the English gardens, and eventually ended up at the Hoffbrau tent for one last hurrah… which lasted nearly all night! (It’s ok, I slept on the trains the next day between Munich and Strasbourg and then Strasbourg to Toulouse).
Arriving in Toulouse, tired and travel-worn, Valentin picked me up at the train and we went for a bite to eat before starting the 1.5 hour drive to Tarbes.
So here I am, at the Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs (F.J.T.). I’ve only spent one night here, but I don’t plan on spending many more. It is, as a matter of fact, better than I anticipated, as I have my own room with a sink for only 17,5 euros per night, but I plan on leaving much sooner than next Monday. Sarah, the other American, and Natalia, the Chilean, have found studio apartments not too far from the city center, and in the same small building! I went with Natalia to the realtor today, as we decided to run errands together while we’re both staying at the F.J.T., so she could finalize the apartment details, and I decided to ask whether or not he could suggest anything for me that would not be too far from the city center as well. As it happens, the realtor we were working with is the owner of the building in which Sarah and Natalia have chosen to live, and he told me that he’ll be done with work on another studio (though slightly bigger and so more expensive) in about 2 weeks, would I like to see it? Yes! So we went to the building, and I immediately felt good things… it’s above a bakery, how much better could it get?! The free studio is 32m2 and is completely furnished. PLUS, a few of the assistants last year got together and bought a washing machine, and the studio which might be mine already has space for a washer and the necessary connections! I was excited for certain aspects of living with roommates, but not for others. But if the three of us live in such a small building anyway, it’s like having all the positives of living with other people, and none of the negatives!
I was busy getting things done today, with finding an apartment and all (pure luck), and opening a bank account at the Société Generale, I feel like I’ve accomplished at least a quarter of the things that had me being nervous about this experience. As for me being done at the F.J.T., I plan on staying with Natalia as of Thursday until my apartment is ready. It will be a little cramped for the two of us there, but that way I won’t have to do a big move of my suitcases once we’ve started doing observations and visiting my schools next week (I will be working in 3 different elementary schools I found out today).
I met my contacts from the program today, at what I would consider to be the district office. As it turns out, there is one elementary school which is further out of town, an hour walk I believe, and as it turns out this will be one of the schools I have. Luckily, or unluckily, there is a bicycle that they have from the past few years which I will be given to make my commute… wearing a purple helmet and a yellow reflective vest… oy. However, we only work 3 days per week, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, with Wednesday and Friday off. This means constant 3-day weekends for travel and fun, and that only one day per week I will make the trek to that school.
Tuesday nights are the meetings of the local engineering school’s international club, and being that its Tuesday, we will be off shortly to walk back to town for un verre with the club and to start mingling with the locals!
Signing off,
Veronica Corningstone

New Year / Next Day Photo Montage