Break-Day through Palm Sunday and Only Monday

                                                     No School on Wednesdays 
                                                    Today: March 25, 2013 (Monday)

March 20, 2013 (Wednesday)
     For two of the three groups, Wednesdays are free days because our mentor teacher does not teach any classes on Wednesdays. (BISS's school schedule is much like an American would expect a college schedule to be.  There are frequent breaks and classes can be either within five minutes or within four hours of one another.  During the longer breaks, my group and I typically continue our exploration of the city center, downtown Strasbourg.)  So, on this particular Wednesday, the ladies of the day-off group (both males of the group are with Sarah and their mentor teacher this day) decided it was a great day for shopping, so once everyone was up and ready, off we went!

     Shopping is not ever my first choice of things to do (most of the time, it does not even cross my mind), but I did enjoy myself.  I even found and purchased a gift for Mom at an open market that took place in the city center that day.  Otherwise, for the most part, I spent my time looking at all of the merchandise in the boutiques and breads in the shoppes.  I was also able to pay back everyone who had put money on a hotel reservation or train ticket for the upcoming weekends--I was so relieved!
     We took a break for lunch at a German restaurant with a kind and accommodating waitstaff.  While I have been practicing much of the French I learned at WVU, I do not feel competent enough to order for a group of five Americans, so we were all grateful when an English-speaking waitress came to help our table.  (Tipping waitstaff is not expected here, but we always tip because of our language incompetence.  Fun fact: restaurants here do not split up a bill, either.  Everyone puts and exchanges money from the middle of the table, based on the prices listed in the long bill each table is given at the end of a meal.)  As may be expected to some of you reading, the menu was not written in English, so instead of going with a dish I recognized, I scanned the dishes and ordered something within my price-range.  One of the ladies in our group asked me what was in the salad I had ordered because it sounded good.  I just laughed because I had no idea.  As it turns out, it was delicious; a quartered, boiled egg, an assortment of vegetables, and sausage (it looked and tasted like bologna) arrived on a bed of lettuce moments later.  The dressing came on the salad, but no options were given.  It tasted like vinaigrette.

     I am always amused by the drinks here.  Water is not free and comes either "flat" or "with bubbles".  Water and sodas always come in glass bottles, but a regular drinking glass is offered as well.  Every measurement is in metric (as can be expected), which was an additional adjustment for me.  It is all so interesting and humbling!  I do wish I had studied more French before coming, but my classwork did not seem to allow it at the time.  (Another fun fact: French keyboards are constructed with some buttons in a different place and additional symbols beneath the number line of the keyboard--hence any spelling mistake, although, I believe I have caught most of them.)  Once we returned from shopping, Ryan and I went half and half on a pizza (decent, but not American--it was also store-bought) and I began the blog!


March 21, 2013 (Thursday)
     There is a four-hour break in the middle of classes today.  (I am still loving the students, atmosphere, and interactions--student to student, student to teacher, teacher and students to interns (collectively and respectively)--at BISS. Although rainy, the weather lightens up at intervals, but the building structures are ever-beautiful, dispite the weather.)  As a group, part of this break was spent shopping around.  Window-shopping continued, for me; although, I did purchase a dress I had been eyeing for graduation from Zara... when would I have time to look when I got back? (There is no question mark on this keyboard!  I just had to copy and paste one from the internet.)  I was finished after two hours of this and agreed to read in the indoor plaza (I had borrowed a book from Ms. VonRentzell on Tuesday: Boy by Roald Dhal.  This is what her sixth grade class was reading (in English) and I figured I could read it and teach a lesson on a part of it before we left the school.  I appreciate Roald Dhal's writing style and had yet to read this novel; it is his autobiography, in a sense.  They came back to the bench when it was about ten minutes before our next class began.
     This was a late day for our group, so we returned to the Chateau around 7pm, our time.  Jackie and Anna went to the store, but I had intentions to phone Grand Jean to touch-base with her, so I went straight to the Chateau and was promptly distracted by the gorgeous sunset over newly uncovered, green fields and bushels of trees.  In my dress clothes, I placed my bags on the flat top, climbed on a concrete base (probably meant to support a statue of sorts, since it was about four and a half/ five feet tall), and lied down as best I could to watch the baby blue sky fold into deep blue-gray clouds and swell to consume the fading pink sunset... so sorry you can't see the field better!

Occasionally, a jogger would pass by about 20 or so feet away, but no one bothered me.  It was so nice.  My main thought at this particular moment was that lonliness is so beautiful--if you choose to see it that way.
     Sarah and Drew cooked dinner this night, then we collectively got ready to go dancing and failed to do so in the end.  Ultimately, we met a kindly older gentleman who goes by George.  He sat and talked with us until around 11pm or so and, since we had to teach the next morning and the next bus wouldn't run until 5am, we continued to hang out a while longer before heading to bed.


March 22, 2013 (Friday)
     Teaching went well today!  This is the only Friday we will have in the schools because of Easter weekend and our exit time at the Chateau.  Today, we watched the seventh grade students create cheerleading moves and lots of excitement with a game they call "Pig Tennis."  It allow them to practice grammar; it's so cute!  Have I mentioned that this class can speak some sign language, too?  Practical phrases such as, "Can I use the restroom?" and fun phrases such as, "May we play pig tennis?" and "I have lost my dinosaur." are prevalent.  They demonstrqted their skills to us on our first day in their class.
     At our go-to café, I tried French cheesecake today!  It is so light and fluffy--like a creamy mousse.  I also drank expresso out of a tiny teacup.  It was adorable!  Before we returned from our break, we also visited another open market.  After we returned, my excitement to be in the classroom did not waiver--being here is so encouraging for me!
     Ryan and I cooked dinner tonight and no one went hungry. (I have found that I am always much hungrier each day here than I am back home.)  Some of the group went to go dancing, but it turned out to be a bust (they went to a bar, then were harassed... they spent most of the time walking and taking various modes of transportation).  I was unable to go (I caught up with skyping friends... I was very tired from teaching that day and did not want to spend more money on a taxi if they weren't sure if they were going to go dancing--before they left, they planned on heading to a bar.), but hung out with the ladies when they returned!


March 23, 2013 (Saturday)
     I woke up on Saturday thinking I would finally get a chance to ride a bike around the Chateau and visit a park that's about 10 minutes away (I've been pining to do so ever since I first passed it on the bus ride back from BISS), but these plans were once again foiled--to my liking, though.  Today, we ended up walking through the botanical gardens, which was very interesting.  I'm sure the garden is absolutely gorgeous when in full bloom.

     When it began to sleet, we headed into the green houses, then went on to a zoology museum that was nearby.  I am fairly certain that this museum had darn close to every living creature readily available.  Any animal from air, land, water, or any combination of them could be found in this taxidermist's dream.  It was very educational!  I had no idea how large or miniscule some creatures really are.
     After the museum, we decided to have dinner in L'Petit France.  This means that we walked around around 4:30pm when almost all of the restaurants opened around 6:00pm.  Although we did not end up eating lunch here, we did find and sort through many types of unknown candies in a local candy store, Gangnam-style dance with a bridal shower party (They were dressed as snow white and five dwarves... it was glorious.  They stopped another group to Macarena with them also, so it must have been part of a game.)  Then we saw a wedding party on the main bridge in this area--it all seemed like an uncanny coincidence, but it was so neat!
     Hungry, but not having found a place for dinner, we decided to meet two members of the group at the center station (downtown) for dinner.  We went to a restaurant called "Max's" and then Drew and I left dinner early to see a French version of "The Passion of Christ" in the Notre Dame Cathedral.  The performance was live, but because the Cathedral is so large, a white screen was pulled up near the choir area and the acts were projected onto the screen as they happened.  Everything was sung in French except for the opening song (which was "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera).

Both Drew and I very much enjoyed the performance.  It was absolutely freezing when we left the Cathedral, though!  When we arrived at the Chateau, we watched Sarah, David, Anna, and George play Hearts for a while to thaw out some before heading the rest of the way upstairs to our group's floor.



March 24, 2013 (Palm Sunday)
     For Palm Sunday, most of us went to the Cathedral for the service.  It was so nice outside that I took my first, brief, walk on some of the nearby grounds of the Chateau while waiting for everyone else to be ready to leave.  The service was pleasant and I was pleased when I realized that I could understand enough of what was said to follow along, for the most part.

     Following the service, we all went to eat at a nearby pub.  I cannot remember what it was called, but it had the best-priced and portioned food I have eaten so far in Strasbourg.  It was delicious.  The group split up from here.  Drew, Ryan, Sarah, David, and I went to walk up the spiral stairs of the Cathedral, then to an art museum, while the rest of the ladies went back to the Chateau.  It was fantastic!  I have lots of pictures, but I will ration them for the moment.

 

 

         After everything, we went back to the Chateau for dinner, Moulin Rouge planning for next weekend, a meeting with Isabella, and unpacking (I finally sat down and did it!).


March 25, 2013 (Monday)
     Today is the only Monday I will be observing or teaching at BISS.  It has been wonderful, as always!  I tried two firsts today: a crepe and a tartlet today.  The tartlet was my favorite--it was raspberry and delicious!  I also found out that the singer that we listened to was on the French version of The Voice... THAT was pretty neat!  Otherwise, today has been a long teaching day, so we have not been able to do much else.  The wine tour is on Wednesday, though!

 Good night for now!