Teaching Week 17: The House

This week, I did a little animal review with some of my classes, but the main focus was on rooms of the house. With the younger kids, I showed them all of the rooms on a picture and they repeated the names. Then we played a game where one student would act out different actions and we would have to guess which room he/she was in. You can imagine this was quite funny when they acted out being in the bathroom, lol. We got a lot of good laughs out of that haha. With the older kids, they learned the names of the rooms and they each got a little house along with four pictures of animals. They had to listen as I told them where each animal was in the house. Then, I got students to tell the class where they wanted to put each animal. We also worked in partners, where one partner had to place one animal in their house and the other partner had to guess which room the animal was in. All of the games worked out quite well and overall, I was very happy with this week at the schools.

On Tuesday, I had a yummy lunch as usual. This time it was turkey on a stick, along with the usual (salad, cheese, bread, dessert, and veggies). 

yummy lunch- especially the raspberry jam filled beignet!

On Tuesday evening, I had my adults class again. This time only 5 showed up out of 8. The class still went really well though! I was actually surprised that I had such a good time with them, lol. They read through various dialogues to help them imagine conversations in different scenarios (shoe store, restaurant, party, etc). Some of them were really getting into it haha. The weird thing about these dialogues was that they seemed to be made for only boys. My class is all women and one man. So, most of the girls didn’t care about being guys, but some women tried to change the gender of the sentences. We got some laughs as the man called the women: sir, and as the women tried to change guy names into girl names. One lady changed Peter to Mary-Peter, and another changed Henry to Henrietta, haha. Then, they completed a dialogue about going through airport security, and at the end, we created a dialogue together about reserving a hotel room. I gave them a worksheet with all of the information for the guest and the hotel receptionist, and they had to create the conversation. I think that they enjoyed this lesson, and I am really pleased with how it went!

On Wednesday, after classes, I usually buy a baguette from this awesome bakery. They make the best bread, so sometimes, I like to try other things that they make as well. I bought this pastry which is called a torsade de chocolat blanc (white chocolate flavor, mmm). Then I also bought oreillettes because they are typically made to be eaten during carnaval time. They are really thin flaky pastries with sugar on top. These ones had a hint of an orange taste. 

Torsade

Oreillettes

On Thursday night, Kate made falafel, and it was so yummy! It was my first time eating it, and I really need to get the recipe! I want to make it again soon.

Loving all of my food experiences here in France,

Magdalena

Weekend in Switzerland!

This weekend I visited a friend of mine, Beni, who I had met at UGA. It was really nice to catch up with him and to have such an educated guide! I visited Zurich and Lucerne. Switzerland was all that I imagined and more! It was the land of chocolate, watches, drinking fountains, awesome playgrounds, breathtaking lakes, beautiful mountains, and nice people :)! I stayed from Thursday night to Monday afternoon, so let’s start from the beginning…

I arrived Thursday night after about a short 50 minute flight from Lyon. I flew with Swiss airlines, and I have nothing but good things to say about the experience. On the flight, I got my first taste of Swiss chocolate!

OJ and first chocolate in Switzerland!

Beni met me at the airport, and soon after, he advised me to buy a Zurich travel card (which cost me about 40 swiss francs). This card allowed me to travel on all of the public transport in the city for 3 days, which was perfect! It also gives you discounts on many attractions in the city! I definitely recommend you invest in one if you ever visit Zurich. You can even get a one day pass if you plan on staying just for a day. So then, we took a train back to his apartment.

On Friday, Beni showed me around Zurich. Unfortunately, it was rainy and overcast for most of the day, but I still enjoyed seeing the city. I got some swiss francs from the train station and I was ready for the day! First stop, the chocolate store!! :) It’s called Läderach and they have some really delicious chocolate!! I tried quite a few flavors including: white chocolate raspberry blackberry, milk chocolate honey, milk chocolate with hazenuts, and milk chocolate fudge. Mmmmmmmm. 

Swiss chocolate = heaven

Next we continued to walk around the city. We went into this really neat toy store! It had a slide inside and it was 4 stories of different toys. There was a floor for board games, a floor for girl toys, a floor for boys toys, and a floor with random toys (like stuffed animals). It was such a cute store!

Little girl paradise!

Then, we continued to walk around and went into an english book store, which made me feel like I was back in the US, lol. After that, we continued to walk around, and Beni showed me a place where we could see a nice view of the city. It was a bit overcast, but still pretty! 

One of my favorite views of Zurich

We walked around the older part of the city and I really liked all of the narrow, cobblestone streets. We also went inside three churches, a protestant one, the Great Minster (has a statue of Charlemagne), and the Women’s Minster (which has famous stained glass windows by the artist Marc Chagall). 

Women's Minster

After the church visits, we had quick lunch of salad and tarte flambé. I also had a really nice tea! I liked the cool tea mug with the tea infuser inside. I had a tea that was called crunchy apple and it was really nice! It tasted like apples, cinnamon, and vanilla. 

delicious tea

Then, Beni showed me his university (ETH Zurich) as well as The University of Zurich (which is right next door). 

Main Building of the ETH Zurich

View near Beni's school

After the university visit, we took a tram and then walked around some more. We ended up at a park which is part of the University of Zurich campus. It was a nice little park with a little pond and lots of ducks.

University of Zurich park

Then, we walked a bit by a river, and after that, we went to get a coffee/tea at this alternative-type cafe which is right near an arts school in Zurich. 

On Saturday, we explored Zurich some more and the weather was much nicer! We started off by going to this store called: Freitag. This store does not really look like a store, and it sells individualized bags, wallets, and cases, that are made from recycled materials (such as truck tarps, car seat belts, and bicycle inner tubes). It’s a pretty cool idea and many people in Switzerland really like these products. I got myself a little credit card holder from here. We also climbed to the top of the store, and got a nice view of the city. 

Freitag store

Some of their products. They mostly make messenger bags, but here are some tablet and phone cases

After the shop, we walked around an international street, and then stumbled upon a playground! I took the opportunity to relax and release my inner child, lol. 

chilling on a swiss swing

Next, we went to see lake Zurich. The lake was so nice! As we were enjoying the view on a dock, I heard a polish couple talking and walking towards us. I took this opportunity to ask them to take a photo for us in Polish, lol. 

Panorama of Lake Zurich

Beni and I by lake Zurich

Then, we took a tram to see the FIFA headquarters, which happens to be really close to the Zurich Zoo! Unfortunately, we were not able to go inside the headquarters, but we did end up going to visit the Zoo!

FIFA headquaters

At the zoo, Beni explained that they allow the penguins to walk around the zoo among the people at a certain time each day. Unfortunately, we came too late for that, but I still got a picture with a penguin! 

very realistic statue of a penguin

The zoo also had a really cool playground! Seriously, Swiss kids must be the happiest kids, because the playgrounds here are awesome! I even wanted to play on that playground!

Awesomeness

Such a cool playground!

We also visited this exhibit called the Masoala Forest, which is this huge enclosed space with lots of animals and plants. We walked along the path inside and searched for animals. It was hard to find the animals here, but we ended up seeing some chameleons, bats, birds, and tortoises. It was pretty warm inside this enclosure (25-28 C). 

Really felt like I was in the Jungle!

Then, we took a tram up to this mountain called: Uetliberg. There we walked up and climbed lots of stairs up the Uetliberg look out tower where we got a nice view of the city. It was very cold and windy up there though, so we didn’t stay too long. 

View from Uetliberg

After that, we got some groceries, and then had cheese fondue for dinner! It was my first time eating it, and I really liked it! It was a special cheese, garlic cloves, and white wine... and we dipped pieces of bread inside, mmmmmm.

stirring that bread like a pro lol

On Sunday, Beni and I started the day with some special bread called Zopf, which we ate with homemade strawberry rhubarb jam and honey. It was so delicious! We also watched a bit of the Winter Olympic games. 

tasted a lot like chałka (polish bread)

Then, we took a train to Lucerne. Some of the trains here even have little playgrounds inside for the kids! The swiss kids are so lucky! 

Little playground on the train

So, I have decided that I really love Lucerne! It is such a beautiful place, and the weather was perfect. Lake Lucerne is just so pretty! I loved just sitting by the lake and enjoying the view of the water and the gorgeous mountains in the distance. After enjoying the lake view, we walked around the rest of the city. We walked on and saw a famous bridge. 

Gorgeous lake

I love this lake and the mountains!

Later on, we went to see the famous Lion Monument (I swear I think every country so far in Europe has some sort of important lion statue/monument). Then we walked around some more and saw the old walls of the city and some of the towers. From there, we had a nice view!

With the lion Monument

Old city walls

Pretty view

After that, we continued walking around the city and I really enjoyed just marveling at the beauty of this place. There were people around enjoying the sunshine, and sitting outside. The bridge looked extra nice. 

Lovely Lucerne

There's the old famous bridge with the tower

After we saw the city, we got some hot dogs from a place called: Bretzelkönig (pretzel king). We ate our lunch by the beautiful lake.

Then we took a train back to Zurich. Once in Zurich, I took a bus to check out this neat park designed by Bruno Weber. It was a bit intimidating being on public transport in the city, because everything was all in german…. luckily, Beni told me beforehand what stop I needed to get off at, so it all worked out. It was a bit of an adventure to find this park though. There were not many signs leading toward it and it was a bit out the way in the middle of nowhere. I used my gut and the two random signs along the way to find the park. I passed a chicken farm, a apartment complex, the city hall, and eventually made it to this park! It was an interesting park, and it reminded me a bit of Park Guell in Barcelona. You can tell that this artist was inspired a bit by the work of Gaudi. There were some serpents and dragons that you could walk on, and I thought that it was pretty cool!

Bruno Weber Sculpture park

I found my way back to Beni’s place and in the evening we had a delicious specialty of Zurich called: Zürcher Geschnetzeltes (which is beef pieces with onion, cream, mushrooms, herbs, and a white wine sauce) with Rösti (kind of like hash browns). 

Monday morning, I woke up and took the train with Beni into the Zurich main station. There we went our separate ways, him to class, and I took a walk around the city. I made it to this one place where Beni had taken me Friday. This time, the sky was clear and it was super sunny. I sat outside and just enjoyed watching this city wake up. It was so peaceful and I stayed there for about an hour and a half. Then, a few people started appearing to enjoy the view as well. Some people were just walked their dogs, and some took pictures. I met this one girl from China who was studying in Sweden. She was taking a ten day trip around Europe because she had holidays right now. We had a nice chat and she wanted to take a picture with me. She didn’t stay long though, because she only had one afternoon to see Zurich. Shortly after she left, I left as well, and headed to another one of my favorite places, the chocolate store! There I got some yummy chocolate, and even a cute little chocolate fox :). 

Chocolate fox

After the chocolate store, I headed back to Zurich Main Station and waited for a train to take me to the airport. I was waiting by the correct platform, but a few minutes before the train was supposed to arrive, they canceled it somehow! It was a little stressful, but I tried following some people who seemed like they were headed for the airport as well. I eventually got to another platform and asked an employee if the train was headed to the airport. He told me that it was, so after that I felt good. The train got me to the airport in about 11 minutes, which was rather quick! At the airport, I got some lunch at the pretzel king! I got another yummy hotdog with a smoked sausage in a pretzel bun! Mmmmmmm.

yummy hotdog. I actually think they are more satisfying than regular American ones

Then, I headed to my terminal, and then onto a tiny Swiss plane. 

Once in Lyon, I took the RhoneExpress shuttle to the train station. A random girl sat next to me, and when she started talking french to the train conducted guy, I could tell that she was from an English speaking country. So, I started up a conversation with her, and found out she was from Canada and that she was studying abroad for the semester working on her masters in business. She told me that she had just spent a week in Russia, and that she got to see some olympic events! It was cool to meet someone who had gone there! She was telling me that she got to watch a hockey game (she was really into hockey… oh Canadians lol), but she had to pay about 600 dollars for the ticket! It was worth it for her though because it was a once in a lifetime experience. She was also in her late twenties, so she had told me that she has already saved up money from working for a few years. After the ride we said our goodbyes, and I went to the train station so that I could catch a train back to Roanne. Once back in Roanne, I did a little lesson planning, and relaxed. 

Overall, I had a great time in Switzerland, and I am so thankful to Beni for showing me around his country! I have been so lucky to have made such good friends at UGA, that I can now reconnect with while in Europe.

I really hope to reconnect with even more friends in the following months! :)

Magdalena

Teaching Week 16: More Old Macdonald, and Night at the Theatre

Overall, this past week, I mostly focused on reviewing the farm animals with the help of the Old Macdonald song. In most of my older classes, I started talking about the rooms of the house. We did an activity where each student got a little house and pictures of four animals. They had to put the animals in the correct rooms of the house. Later, they got to work in partners and one partner placed an animal inside the house and the other had to figure out which room the animal was placed in.

On Tuesday, I usually start the day off with the oldest kids, but today they had special guests come in and give presentations about the environment so I taught the little kids (5 year olds) instead. The guest speakers were pretty young and I even made friends with one of them! I never really expected to meet anyone around my age at the school, so it was a nice surprise :).

Tuesday afternoon I had lunch at the high school.

yum yum lunch

Tuesday evening, I had my adult class. I had them watch a tourism video on Atlanta, and then they planned trips with a partner around the city. I gave them each maps and they had to figure out where they wanted to go, what they wanted to do there, how they were gonna get there, and the directions to those places. It was interesting to see what spots interested them most in Atlanta. The majority wanted to go to the World of Coke and the Aquarium. Then, they had to present their trips and give directions to others. At the end, I gave them directions and they had to figure out where I was taking them by analyzing the map. Overall, I think it was a useful lesson for them. And one of the adults brought bugnes, which are beignet-like pastries with powdered sugar. They were tasty!

I had to quickly get to the theatre after I finished the adult class, because I had tickets to a show! I went with my roomies and Fatima. The show was called File Tone and it was a very strange, but entertaining show. It consisted of five men, who seemed to be of different origin. They spoke some Spanish, Italian, French, but mostly English. It must have been hard for some of the older french people to understand, and at some points they were even joking around and telling people to translate jokes for non-english speakers, lol. It was a variety show consisting of juggling (hats and pins), beat-boxing, breakdancing, comedy, cross-dressing, dance, and little skits. Here is a youtube video that gives you an idea of the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NeW42YLoIs

Before the show at the theatre

On Wednesday, I went for a run after my morning classes which felt really good! I ran to the port and next to the river for a bit. I took this panorama near the river.

great day for a run

In the late afternoon, I met up with my friend William (who I had met at school the day before). In the evening, Kate, Kim, and I had dinner at our neighbors. Tim cooked some delicious pizzas for all of us! He made three varieties: a vegetable one, a spicy chicken one, and a lamb one. My favorite was the spicy chicken!

two of the pizzas: lamb and chicken 

On Thursday evening, I left for Switzerland for the weekend and that blog post will be coming very soon!

Magdalena

Valentine's Day, Quality French Family Time, and Quality Friend Time

Friday was Valentine’s Day, but like I mentioned before, Valentine’s day is not celebrated as much as it is in the US. I wanted to do a little something special with my roomies nonetheless :). I proposed that we go to this patisserie and get some tea and dessert. I am glad the girls agreed, because it was so nice to try a new french pastry.

Our choices: I went with the St. Honoré, Kim went with a macaroon variety, and Kate went with a chocolate-vanilla creme giant macaroon

Here I am with my St. Honoré

After our little outing, I hurried back because I was going over to my host family’s house for dinner. I met up my host mom at the school where she works and we did a little grocery shopping on the way home. We went to this french store that had a “Fresh Market” and “Whole Foods” type feel. The products all looked really fresh and they had a candy, nut, and dried fruit bar. After getting some groceries, we picked the kids up from school. 

When we got home, we started cooking quenelles. Quenelles are typical of the lyon region, and I am surprised that I hadn’t already tried them. They were pretty easy to cook, because all we had to do was make a sauce, and rice to go with them. So first, we placed the quenelles in a baking pan. To make the sauce, first, you have to melt about 1/3 of a stick of butter in a pot. Then, turn the heat really low, and add about 1-2 tablespoons of flour and whisk until it is thick and doughy. Then, add milk, little by little, until the sauce becomes thin. Next, add some tomato concentrate (seemed to be about 2-3 tablespoons), and whisk until the mixture changes color to a light pink. Then you are supposed to add some Muscade (nutmeg), but we forgot haha. We were talking about adding it and we picked it up, but them we ended up putting it away, instead of adding it in…whoops! So once the sauce is complete, pour it over the quenelles, and sprinkle shredded cheese (we used emmental) all over the top. Then, it goes in the oven at 180-200 C for about 30-35 minutes. The quenelles were quite tasty! For dessert, we had yogurt and dried dates. 

After dinner, the kids went to bed, and we, the adults, watched some French music awards show. We saw Stromae win a few awards and we saw him perform as well. Stromae is pretty popular here in France, I wonder if he is known in the US??

On Saturday, Luke, Kate’s friend, and Stefan, Kim’s friend came to visit! It was nice to see the two of them again. We all went out together in the evening, and we had a great time dancing the night away :). One place even gave out roses to all of the girls, probably because the day before was Valentine’s day. Anyways, it was so nice to get a flower :). 

Me with my rose :)

On Sunday, I went ice skating for the first time in my life! It was so much fun! I only fell twice, which I thought wasn’t too bad. I skated for about an hour. I had fun with my host family, and I am so happy that they took me ice skating. I skated around the rink and I even pushed the kids around in these little sleigh things. 

The rink is separated for little kids and older people

First time ice skating!

Ice Age painting in the room where you put on your skates

After skating, I came home and had some pizza for lunch with the roomies and guests. After lunch, I went and saw my first Rugby game ever! Our neighbors have been asking us to come watch them play for a while, so we finally had time today. The Roanne team beat the Paris team! It was cool to be there for a win, but throughout the game I got kind of lost. I am not really familiar with the rules, but it was still interesting to watch. There were quite a few fights on the field and some players just got hurt during the game. One boy broke his wrist, and another seemed to have dislocated his shoulder or something. Rugby can get pretty dangerous for the players.

After the game, we got home, and I planned a few lessons before dinner. Tomorrow I have yet another day off, and I am happy I can sleep in after this long, busy weekend.

Love having Mondays off,

Magdalena

Teaching Week 15: Old MacDonald Had a Farm...

So this week, the majority of my lessons revolved around the song, “Old MacDonald.” I taught kids of various ages the names of the farm animals as well as their sounds in english. The difficulty levels of the activities varied with the age of the students. For the very young ones (5-6) I showed them flashcards and wrote the sounds on the board and had them repeat after me. Then, they learned the song through lots of repetition. With the slightly older kids (7-9), I added on a worksheet where they had to match the sound and picture of the animal. They also had to write the animals name next to each picture. For the oldest kids (10-11). They had some partner activities in addition to learning the song. They each received some riddles that described the animals, and their partners had to guess which animal was being described. The riddles were simple and helped review colors and parts of the body, which we talked about earlier on in the year. Then, each partner received a different set of pictures of farm animals and they had to describe their pictures to their partners. For example, one student had one cow in their picture while the other student had two. Then, I had pairs come up and present in front of the class.

Funny side notes: When talking about the animals, all of them knew the word duck already, because of "Donald Duck." I am guessing that he is pretty famous here among the children. Also, they had problems with the word "sheep." Every time they said it they would giggle because it sounds a lot like they are saying "chips" in French. And as soon as I said, Old MacDonald, they all started laughing and talking about McDonald's... haha. Never a dull moment with these kids :).

Other little lessons I taught this week were pretty random, but they were a nice break from “Old MacDonald.” In one of my Tuesday classes, I presented a Powerpoint on San Francisco. I showed them pictures and I even played them a music video of the song, San Francisco by PH Electro, because it does a good job of really showing off the city. After this presentation, the kids were asking when they could start packing their suitcases, haha. On Wednesday, I had two small groups of four kids from my 3rd class. Usually, this class as a whole is a little hard to handle, but in small groups they were great! I have never seen them so focused! We played Guess Who, and afterwards, the kids told me that they really had fun! 

On Tuesday night, I had my adult english class. We started off by a grammar sheet as usual, and then finished talking about the Friends lesson from last week. Next, I told them about the movie, The Wizard of Oz, and I showed them the trailer. Then, we started to just zoom in on the song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, and I had them watch the clip from the movie. After watching it once, I had them fill in missing lyrics while watching it a second time. Then, I played them the same clip but with subtitles so they could check their work. Once they had everything filled in, we discussed the song and what we thought it was about. Next, I talked about covers of songs, and played them IZ’s version of the song. We compared the two and talked about which we preferred and why. During this discussion, the adults taught me two french words: cul cul (which I think means wishy-washy/ludicrous) and niais (which means simple, naive.) I had to look them up on word reference, because I had not heard these words before. At the end of class, we discussed Valentine’s Day and how the US celebrates it versus how France celebrates it. Apparently it is not that big of a deal here in France, especially at the elementary schools. The kids don’t bring cards, candy, and treats for teachers or their classmates. The adults told me that in France, couples might go out to eat at a restaurant, or the guy might buy the girl some flowers. They said it’s not very common to give chocolate to each other or other gifts. For most people in France, Valentine's Day seems to be just like any other normal day. It's very interesting to have these cultural difference talks with French people and I hope I can have more of them with my adults. 

Random highlights from my week:

The Tuesday lunch at the high school had to be one of my favorites ever! I just really enjoyed it all, even though I wasn’t even quite sure what I was eating. I think the main dish was a sausage type thing. 

yum

On Wednesday, it was one of the teacher’s birthday, so she brought Mars bars for her students and she gave me one as well! It was solo good! It was like a milky way but with caramel added.

On the way back home from work Thursday, I saw a really nice rainbow! It was probably one of the fullest rainbows that I have ever seen; it was really a full arch.

Rainbow over la Loire

On Thursday night, Kate, Jack, Camilo’s girlfriend, and I went to this free french rock concert at a youth center. We were hoping to meet some younger french people and we wanted to check out the music. The group was called La Jarry. We were not expecting it to be very good, but we were pleasantly surprised! The group wasn’t half bad. There was a variety of ages there, and some of the older people were having the best time lol. They were dancing and one lady even knew all of the words to their songs.

La Jarry

Enjoyed another good week here in Roanne,

Magdalena