Last Weekend in Roanne!

This past weekend was bittersweet. Kate and I spent it mostly tidying up the apartment and packing all of our things up. 

On Saturday afternoon, Kate and I went to lunch at a teacher’s house. She was one of the english teachers that Kate has worked with throughout the year. She lives in another small town outside of Roanne, so we got to drive through some nice countryside! 

Once we got there, we met her boyfriend, and they served us a very french-style lunch. We began with a drink and appetizers. One of which was some couscous-like thing with crab and salmon eggs mixed in. After appetizers, we had some asparagus. Next, we had chicken legs and rice. The chicken legs had been cooked in a yummy sauce with pineapples. Then, we had assorted french pastries (cream puffs, fruit tarts, chocolate tarts, etc).  for dessert with a cup of tea. I ate so much and it was all so good! I am happy that Kate took me along to this meal. 

After we got back to Roanne, we headed directly over to Jack’s and Camilo’s place to chill for a while. Then we went home and cooked dinner (vegetable curry). I have never really eaten curry before this year, but now I know I am going to continue to cook it for myself! Jack and Camilo came over for dinner and we had yummy curry as our last meal together. After dinner, we went back to Jack’s and hung out, then went out together for the last time! We had a good time and I am so glad to have gotten to know the other assistants in Roanne this past year!

On Sunday, I went to mass for the last time in Roanne. I will miss my little church! Also, on the way back from church, there was a family walking in front of me. I heard the lady speak french to her daughter, then I heard her speak polish as well! So, I decided to go up to her and start speaking in Polish. She was surprised to hear polish and we had a nice chat together. Turns out she is interested in improving her english, and she is interested in private lessons by me! I wish that I had met this lady sooner! Unfortunately, I do not think that I would be able to help her out much because I am leaving… but if I am ever back, maybe I will contact her. She also told me that there are a lot of other polish people here, but I have not had any luck finding them until now, lol. 

On Sunday night, Kate and I wrote a letter to the future assistants of Roanne. We gave them advice on good restaurants and places to hang. I hope that the letter helps them in some way :). I kind of wish that the last assistants left us a letter with some advice about life here in Roanne. (maybe we will start a tradition, lol). 

On Monday, we finished cleaning the apartment, and someone from the school came and inspected it. Then, we ran some errands, had lunch, said goodbye to Jack and Camilo, and then headed off to the station! Tim took us the train station where we said good bye!

I'll miss my Aussie neighbor!

Before leaving, I snapped a photo of the famous restaurant here called: Trois Gros. Even Beyonce and Jay Z ate here once! 

Trois Gros- Roanne's claim to fame

I am going to miss living in Roanne, and I am going to miss all of the friends I have made here. I will never forget this experience, and I am grateful to have had such a great time teaching here!

My home for the past seven months!

I am sad to leave, but Kate and I are on a new adventure now! We are off to Cannes!  My teacher’s sister is renting an apartment to Kate and I until the 10th of May. It’s in Mandelieu, which isn’t too far from Cannes :). We arrived tonight, and we got a quick look at Cannes as we got from the station to our apartment. My teacher's sister picked us up from the station and gave us a quick tour of the place. I can’t wait to explore tomorrow and I can’t wait to spend my birthday in the south of France :).

Let the adventures continue,

Magdalena

Teaching Week 23: Last Week at the Schools!

This week was my last week teaching. These past 7 months have gone by so fast! 

This week, we did a lot of singing (If you’re happy and you know it, months of the year macarena…). I also showed some music videos to the kids. One song that was a huge hit was, “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. I showed them a Despicable Me minion version with lyrics and all of the kids wanted to watch over and over again! Some kids even asked me what the title of the video was so that they could find it and watch it at home :). Here’s the link if you want to check it out for yourself! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-GLuydiMe4

I got a lot of pictures and gifts from the kids and teachers. The teachers got me chocolates, a photo book voucher, perfume, and a Nocibe gift card. The kids mostly drew pictures of me, their school, Paris, or just random stuff…like star wars pictures, transformers, and some pictures that I don’t even know how to describe, haha. I also got candy, chocolate, flowers, bracelets, a picture holder, seashells, origami birds/flowers, and some letters from the students! 

Some drawings and some gifts from my kids!

A Star Wars drawing (by a 7 year old)

Another good drawing by a student (9 year old)

Not exactly sure what is going on here... (drawn by a 6 year old)

She has me taking an interesting flight :) (by a 9 year old)

I am not sure when I became British, but a lot of kids have drawn the British flag on their pictures to me lol (by a 10 year old)

I gave out candy to each of my classes, and I baked lemon drizzle cakes for the teachers to thank them for their kindness and collaboration. I even gave some teachers some books with CDs that I had brought back from the US. For my last class ever on Thursday afternoon, I baked them a lemon drizzle cake and banana bread to try. It was really funny to watch french kids eat banana bread for the first time (french people don’t ever eat/make banana bread). The reaction to the banana bread was mixed; either the kids really liked it, or they made a funny face, and said that it was “different.” On the other hand, the lemon drizzle pleased everyone. Thank you Clare for the recipe! :)

I am very grateful that I got to work at schools with very nice teachers and students! I am going to miss all of them! I hope to stay in contact with the teachers and maybe see them again when I am back in Roanne. I have been very lucky to be placed in schools that really appreciated me being there and I wish that the contract was longer! I don't think it’s going to hit me that it's over until I don’t go to work next week…

Also, Kate and I had a final Tuesday lunch at the high school. I am going to miss having lunch there!

last lunch!

Melissa came over on Wednesday evening, and we all had a good time chatting together. She got to be there to witness my intense baking for my schools, lol. Kate and I said good bye to Melissa on Thursday morning, but I may see her again in the US at some point, so it wasn't too bad :).

On Friday, Kate and I met up with Fatima one last time. It was nice to catch up, but sad to say good bye.

On Monday afternoon, Kate and I leave for the south of France, and I am super excited for this next adventure!

Only got one weekend left in Roanne,

Magdalena

Easter in France

On Friday, I got to meet Kate’s parents which was fun! I love hearing those english accents :). Melissa also came over in the afternoon. We went to church for Good Friday together in Roanne. 

On Saturday, we took a short trip to Charlieu! I had never been there before, but it is where Melissa works and lives. It was nice to walk around and see a new area! Melissa took me to see the Abby, and to this awesome bakery where I got a choux chantilly! Mmmm!

Abbey in Charlieu

Charlieu 

Choux Chantilly

Then, we had lunch in Roanne, and headed off to Lyon! On the way to Lyon, we sat in a train car near a random guy. About 10 minutes before we get to our stop, this guy pulls out his guitar and gives us a little private concert lol. Then, he asks us where we are from and we all chat for a few minutes. The train stops at Lyon Vaise (where we had planned to get off), but as we push the open door button, nothing happens… and a few seconds later the train starts to move again… weird. We didn’t really understand what had just happened and guitar boy wasn’t pleased either because he had planned to get off at Vaise as well. Well, luckily for us the next station was still in Lyon, (not another faraway city) so we just got off their and took the metro/buses to where we needed to go. The guitar boy followed us for a bit because he had to take the metro as well, and he told us that he was going to a friend’s party tonight. We told him that we were headed to a party later on that night as well (wouldn’t it have been weird if we ended up at the same party, haha). 

After getting a bit lost, we found Melissa’s friend Jamel, and then headed off together to find her friend’s Alice’s apartment. Then we dropped off our things, and went out to Best Bagels for dinner. The bagels were soooo good!! Thank you Melissa for introducing me to this place!

Nachos and best bagel!

Saturday night, we headed over to Adam’s place (a former assistant) for his and Melissa’s Bday celebration. It was nice to meet some Lyon assistants, and I had a good time! 

On Sunday, Melissa and I went to the Easter Mass at the Basilique Notre Dame de fourvière. We arrived a bit late, and it was super crowded! We had to stand during the service because it was packed! I was really happy to spend Easter here because the church is really beautiful!

Basilique Notre Dame

After mass!

After mass, we walked back to Alice’s place and made some Easter breakfast. I made hard boiled eggs and bacon. We even had a strongest egg competition just like I usually do back home (where you hit each others’ eggs to see whose doesn't break), and I won :). 

After breakfast, we all chilled for a while, then Melissa and I headed out to explore Le Parc de la Tête d’Or. I love this park! It's huge and has animals. We looked at some animals and took some photos. At one point, we were looking at a monkey exhibit, and this little girl started to yell, “singe” (monkey) to try to get the monkey’s attention, lol. This kid was persistent too, she was going for a few solid minutes, haha. 

Chillin with the turtles

After the park, we walked around cité internationale, which was pretty cool. There were some interesting giant statues there as well as some restaurants. 

Giant penguin

After that, we chilled at Adam’s place, and went with him and his friends to Trivia! I had never been before and it was really fun! It was at an English pub, so half of the workers were British, and there was an english guy reading all of the questions in english (then another guy repeated them in french). I had some fish and chips there for dinner, and our team finished 4th! 

On Monday afternoon, Melissa, Jamel, and I headed to the train station. We were all tired, but satisfied, because we had a great time in Lyon! 

Did I mention that I got a giant Kinder Egg for Easter!? :) 

yesss, this is real life :P

Excited and sad for the last week of work coming up,

Magdalena

Teaching Week 22: Paper People and Popcorn Reading

Overall this week I reviewed a variety of things with my classes. I played a game that one of my teachers showed me called, "Where are Grandma's teeth?" With this game, the kids reviewed the rooms of the house, furniture, and prepositions. We played a few different versions of the this game. First, the kids took turns "hiding" the teeth in the picture of the house, and the other students had to ask questions and guess where the teeth were. Another version of the game was that I gave each students a clue as to where the teeth weren't in the house, and they had to color in that spot in the house. Then, they talked at the their tables, and got everyone else's clues. Next, the groups asked each other questions until they figured out where the teeth were.

In one class, we read a little story, and I taught them about "popcorn reading." They thought it was cool that they could choose where they wanted to stop reading, and they liked being able to choose the next person to read right after them. It was interesting because usually, the kids would purposefully choose someone who wasn't paying attention at that moment, haha. Most of the class paid close attention because no one knew when their turn to read would come up!

With my little kids (5-7) we played a descriptions game. I created different eyes (different colors), mouths, hairstyles (long/short hair, ponytail, etc.), accessories (glasses, hats), t-shirts, and the kids had to create the person that I described. The game went pretty well and the kids really liked it! It was like creating a paper doll for them. Then, I chose someone from the classroom, and we created the mystery person. After I gave all of the clues, the kids had to figure out which student it was! Also, I had the kids repeat the descriptions of each person we created in complete sentences so that they could get some speaking practice in this activity.

here's an example of a person (me! lol)

On Thursday, I had three classes for the last time, it was bittersweet, but I will get to see them in the halls next Thursday for one last time.

Lunch on Tuesday

Can't wait for the weekend!

Magdalena

Party and Polish People in Roanne

On Friday, I baked some brownies! They turned out really good! I don’t think that I have explained this before, but here, I have a gas mark oven, and it is really difficult to control the temperature of it. Basically, regardless if it is on mark 1 (lowest heat) or mark (10) it heats up extremely fast (in less than a minute it is preheated, not kidding) and it just gets super hot. So, every time I bake something, I have to check on it every 5-10 minutes to make sure that it doesn’t burn. I have been getting the hang of it recently, and it will be strange to go back to a regular oven that takes time to preheat and that heats up normally :P. 

Delicious brownies!

On Saturday, it was Kate’s Birthday! We had assistant friends come over from a few different cities (Thizy, Aurillac, Charlieu, and St. Etienne) and we all enjoyed playing soccer together in the afternoon. I even scored three goals for my team! I was so proud of myself, :). We really lucked out with the weather! It was warm and sunny all day long! In the evening, we all headed over to Jack’s and Camilo’s place where we had some drinks, played some games, and chilled. Then, we all ended up going out dancing and I had a great night :). I loved seeing and spending time with everyone! 

Clare, Kate, Amber, and I at Kate's bday party!

Luke and I at Kate's party!

On Sunday, I had quite a busy day. I woke up and went to Palm Sunday mass. The palms here in France are a bit different to the ones in the US.

Palm Sunday in France!

After mass, I got back to the apartment, and had some breakfast with everyone. Then I hung around the apartment for a few hours. In the late afternoon, I finally got to meet the polish couple that live here in Roanne! It was really exciting to meet them, and I had a great time speaking polish. I also got to meet one of their sons and his french wife. It was nice to get to speak both polish and french with the family! They even baked a polish cheesecake and we had tea together. It was so nice to have some familiar food!

Polish Cheesecake

I really enjoyed the afternoon with them, and then afterwards, I barely made it to the train station to say good-bye to Luke, Amber, Melissa, and Clare. I am glad I got to see them before they left town because I am not sure when/if I will see some of them again 

:(. I hated saying goodbye to everyone… but, luckily, Melissa and Clare will be dropping by again this week.

Sunday evening, Kate, Tim, and I went had a BBQ dinner by the lake in Mably with some french friends. We had lots of yummy sausage, bread, and salad. We had a really nice time, and the weather was really nice but it did get a bit cold after the sunset though. 

beautiful day

Kate and I enjoying the weather!

On Monday, Kate and I spent some time enjoying the sun in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day in Roanne!

Pretty day in Roanne

Enjoying the sunshine,

Magdalena

Teaching Week 21 and Last Adult English Class!

This week was a continuation of prepositions and this time I also taught them “there are” and “there is.” Then, they made up sentences using those phrases along with the proper prepositions by looking at pictures that I drew on the board. With the younger kids, I ended up reviewing the months of the year and teaching them the months of the year macarena- which has been a hit in every class!

Typical delicious school lunch

For my last adult english class, I decided that we should go out to eat together and practice speaking english during the meal. We ended up going to a really good creperie! I had a crêpe with mushrooms, ham, egg, and cheese. Then for dessert I had a creamy strawberry crêpe. One of my students got a really cool crêpe that the waitress lit on fire before serving! It was awesome! 

Here's my strawberry crêpe

One of my student's crêpes! I tried to get a picture while it was still on fire, but I was a bit too late... you can still see a little blue which is the flame

We spoke a mix of French and English at the table. When the waitress came to get our order she was a little confused because she heard us speaking english among ourselves and then we spoke to her in french, lol. I explained that I was their english teacher, and I don’t think that she believed me, haha. Anyways, we all had a good meal together, and I will really miss these adults! Teaching them was a good experience and I am glad that I ended up doing it. 

On Thursday, two of my usual classes were away on a 3 day long field trip, so I ended up just spending the morning with the oldest class (11 year olds). It was really cool to get to observe the teacher teach french lessons. I even participated in a dictation…lol. They are not really done in the US, but here in France they seem to be pretty common. So the teacher reads something, and then kids write it down as correctly as possible. This dictation was even challenging for me, but I did alright.

So all in all, the week went by quickly and I can’t believe I only have two more weeks of teaching at the elementary schools!

Time is flying by,

Magdalena 

Weekend in Austria: Vienna and Salzburg

On Thursday evening, Kate and I took a plane from Lyon straight to Vienna, Austria! Before we got the plane though, we had to wait a while at our gate. Luckily we had some entertainment though, lol. This little boy (probably around 1 and a half years old) was running around and trying to take everything from everyone. He came over to us a few times, and tried to take my suitcase and phone…haha. He also tried to take other peoples’ phones, books, tablets, magazines, etc. The poor parents and grandparents had to run around after this kid… well, they will have some funny stories to tell him when he gets older I suppose!

Anyways, we landed around 9 30pm, and then took a 45 minute bus from the airport to get to Westbanhof station. Then, we found our way to my friend Mira’s place! It was so nice to see her again! We had a nice talk about life in general, and then Mira gave us lots of advice about what to see/do in Vienna. 

On Friday, Kate and I started the day by just exploring the city on foot (taking a path that Mira recommended) towards “the ringstraße” (ring road) which is a circular road that surrounds a district in Vienna. This road has lots of nice buildings on it which we passed including the Parliament Building. 

Kate and I in front of the parliament

As we were passing through and admiring a nice area, a random guy dressed up old-fashioned comes up to us and asks us if we are interested in classical music, and he tries to sell us tickets to some show… We really were not that interested, and even told him in german “nein, danke”. The guy kept talking to us even more though, especially when he realized that we were foreign… and once he realized that he wasn’t going to sell us the tickets he said (try to read this in a heavy Austrian accent, one clue: “w” is said as “v”), “Forget about the tickets, I want to party with you guys! Where you party?” We didn’t quite know how to respond, but just ended up telling him we didn’t know and that we had a limited time to visit the city, so, bye! And we never saw him again, but it was quite a funny experience.

near the area where we met the guy trying to sell us tickets and then later trying to organize partying with us, lol

We continued to walk around and we saw some nice cathedrals. Then, we started getting hungry, so we asked some Austrian guys if they knew a nice schnitzel restaurant. Their english was quite good (all of the young people spoke pretty good english here). They recommended this restaurant called: Figlmüller, near Stephensplatz, so we headed over there! We were lucky that we went when we did, because we barely got a table! There were so many people there, and people who came a few minutes after us even got turned away because it was so full. 

So the Schnitzel was very good! It reminded me a lot of “kotlety schabowe” (Polish food- which is basically the same thing as Schnitzel). We also had this yummy potato salad with it!

Schnitzel and potato salad

After lunch, we explored the St. Steven’s cathedral which was very beautiful!

beautiful church

Then, we met up with my friend Elke! It was so nice to catch up, and she was kind enough to spend the rest of the afternoon with us. She showed us around Vienna and it was really great to hang out. We had a drink in the MuseumsQuarter as well to unwind from the busy afternoon. 

Elke and I

As we were walking by the Opera, Kate spotted one of her Uni friends from England! It’s so crazy that he was here as well. Later on that evening, we met up with him and his group of friends (after about an hour of riding the metro, lol). While on the metro back that night, I ran into another Austrian, Nico. At first I wasn't sure if it was him, but then Kate helped me figure it out, lol. Then, I had a quick chat with him on the metro. What are the odds that we would bump into each other?!

On Saturday, Kate and I spent the day seeing more of Vienna! We started off by going to see the Prater (famous ferris wheel in Vienna) and in the area there is a really nice amusement park. 

the prater

Then we headed off the Naschmarkt, which is a pretty famous outdoor market. There we walked around, and found a nice restaurant to grab some lunch. We had viennese sausages with horseradish and mustard on the side, as well as some potato salad!

yum lunch

Then we bought this yummy milk-chocolate almond treat at the market, it was soooo good!

delicious but overpriced treat (4 euro!)

After the market, we headed off the Schönbrunn Palace. There we explored the gardens a bit and then walked up to get a nice view. After getting a few photos, we just chilled on the grass and enjoyed being outdoors. Next, we walked back to the palace, and explored the Easter Market that was set up right in front of the palace. There were so many tourists here at the palace. I heard quite a lot of eastern european languages, and even overheard some conversations in polish :). 

Chillin on the grass

the palace and some tulips

Easter at the palace!

There were little stalls with easter themed items (little decorative eggs) and all kinds of food (little desserts, pretzels, and sausages). At first I wasn’t going to buy anything, but then I saw this lady eating a pink cube cake (Punschkrapfen) that looked pretty good. I decided that I wanted to try it as well, so I bought one. The frosting was really sweet, and inside there were three layers of cake. It has a taste of rum which complemented the sweetness of the frosting quite well.

mmmm cake

After visiting the market, we headed back to Mira’s where we relaxed until dinner. We had made a reservation at the 7 Stern Brau (thanks to a recommendation by Elke). We had tried some of their beer and we both had some goulash with a dumpling. It was pretty good, and filling.

Goulash

After dinner, we met up with Elke and her friend Anna at a popular bar called: Look Bar (thanks to Mira’s recommendation). It was pretty crowded and hard to find a table. we ended up sitting at a table that was reserved for a big group, but they didn’t end up using the table, so it worked out well for us!

On Sunday, Kate and I went to Salzburg for the day! We decided to use car-sharing to get there, so that we could save money, and it was our first time ever using this website! Mira had called the guy (named Dieter) the night before to confirm where he was going to pick us up, and we found him pretty easily at the Hütteldorf train station in the morning. I was a little worried about participating in car sharing, but it went perfectly fine! Dieter was really nice and talkative! He was a really easygoing guy, about 40ish years old, and kinda looked like a surfer dude (with long dirty blond hair). Luckily for us, he spoke English pretty well. It was about a 2 and a half hour drive, so it would have probably been awkward in silence… Anyways, we all talked the whole way and we even showed off a bit of our german, lol. I know a very useful sentence in german: “Ich habe einen Ragenbogen gesehen” It means: I saw a rainbow. He was impressed, haha. Overall the ride seemed to pass pretty fast, and we got some advice about Salzburg from him because he comes here quite often. It was strange saying goodbye to someone that we probably won’t ever see again, but I will always remember this car sharing experience. 

Once in Salzburg, Kate and I walked around the streets. There were so many pretty buildings! 

pretty Salzburg

After a bit of walking, Kate and I got lunch at an Italian restaurant. I got schnitzel again, but this time with potatoes and veggies. I enjoyed my meal and it really reminded me of polish cooking!

After we ate, we headed over to the gardens where the parts of The Sound of Music were filmed. We got some pictures next to a fountain that was in the movie! It was pretty cool to visit a place where the movie was filmed!

Here is a pic from the Sound of Music...

...and here we are!

Then, we continued walking around and saw some more nice buildings, one of them being Mozart’s birthplace! It’s now a museum and one of the most visited museums in the world I believe!

At Mozart's birthplace! 

Next, we continued to walk around and we admired all of the beautiful buildings! We also went inside the Salzburg Cathedral, which was breathtaking! Definitely one of the prettiest cathedrals that I have seen so far (and I have seen lots of them around Europe).

Beautiful ceiling!

Afterwards, we headed up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which is the largest, fully preserved fortress in central Europe! It was quite an uphill walk, but we made it through. It was definitely worth the 8 euro entrance to get some awesome views of Salzburg! There was also free wifi at the fortress which was pretty cool! 

Hohensalzburg Fortress overlooking the city

nice view of Salzburg

After we toured the fortress, we walked down and found a cafe where we tried Sachertorte, which is a special Austrian (originally from Vienna) chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam inside. It was very tasty! We also had a Mozartkugel with the cake! Mozartkugel (originally from Salzburg) are these little chocolate balls filled with nougat and marzipan. They were pretty good, but I think the cake was better. I was so excited to try one though, because they are sold all over Austria! I was a bit too excited though, because I unwrapped it quickly and somehow, it escaped my fingers and fell on the ground… but luckily, the waitress witnessed all of this, and brought me another free of charge :). 

Sachertorte and Mozartkugel

After this little tea and sweet break, Kate and I took a train back to Vienna. We ended up taking a Westbahn train, which ended up not costing us too much (about 23 euros). It was a nice train, and we could even buy our tickets on board. 

After we got back to the apartment, Kate and I cooked dinner. Then, we went out to a bar not too far away called, Freiraum. It was a very chic and classy two story place. We met up with Elke and another friend of mine named Julia. It was so great to spend time with them and to reminisce about the good times at UGA :). 

Julia, Elke, and I

The weather this past weekend was alright, but mostly overcast. On Monday morning (when we had to leave), the weather was beautiful! The sky was blue, and it was so sunny! Kate and I couldn’t believe it, haha. I took a picture at Westbahnhof just so I would have proof of the blue sky.

waiting for the bus and enjoying the blue sky

We took a bus from the station straight to the airport, where we then waited for our first flight to Zurich. On the plane to Zurich, a lady from Valencia, Spain sat next to us, so Kate got to practice some spanish with her! Once, we landed in Zurich, I felt pretty comfortable, because I had flown to/from this airport before. The plane even arrived at the same gate as when I visited here in February. Before leaving Zurich, I had to get a bar of this delicious honey-nougat, white chocolate! I went up to the shop and paid with Euros, and was surprised to get some strange change… I had forgotten that Switzerland uses the Swiss franc…. haha… embarrassing (especially since I have been here before and obviously converted my currency, whoops). Oh well, the guy still took the euros, which worked for me. 

On this second flight, we sat next to this french guy named David. He was a bartender in Lyon and he was really friendly. He told us that if we were ever back in Lyon, then we could stop by the bar where he works which is called, Obamo. One day, Kate and I may stop by there :). 

I love sitting next to interesting people on flights! It’s fun to talk to someone new and it makes the flight pass by a lot faster.

Monday evening we arrived back in Roanne, really exhausted, but content after a wonderful time in Austria. Thanks to Mira and her wonderful family for allowing us the stay in their home! Also, thanks to my friends Elke and Julia, who were so willing to spend time with Kate and I during our stay. I loved hanging out with all of you! :)

Not ready for another week of teaching,

Magdalena