A little note on eating in France

Eating times here seem to be quite different from eating times at home. Breakfast doesn't seem to be a problem but I have had all kinds of trouble with lunch and dinner.
For example. The other day Lizandro and I were out walking around and we came upon an outdoor creperie/cafe. All the tables and chairs were out but it was closed (this was about 1pm on a saturday). Unlike most places, this one didn't have its hours posted. So we figured we'd come back later when we were more hungry and maybe it would be open.
We came back around 4 i think and it was still closed. Guess it was closed for the day, - whatever, we decided to walk up the hill into the downtown area and try another creperie.
Finally found that one (the downtown area is all these tiny little streets packed in together and its hard to refind things) and were unhappy to find it was closed also.
So we walked over to a cafe that I had gone to for a drink the other night (I wanted creme brulee also that night but was told they didn't have anymore) and sat down. The waitress came by, asked what we wanted, and I gave her our drink order. She brought the drinks and walked away before we could order. I called her over and asked if we could order food and she said "oh no! we only serve food until 2:30."
Huh? You serve food from noon until 2:30pm and that's it? How in the world do you make any money? Where do people eat if they aren't hungry at noon?!
I was starving, and those of you who know me well enough to have been around me when I'm hungry know that I'm not the most pleasant person when my blood sugar is low and my tummy is growling.
Defeated I went to the one place I knew would still be serving food at 5 in the evening!

Subway.

Its the only American chain I have seen in Limoges and it was packed with young kids and students like myself. I wasn't looking forward to this experience in the least. What?! Im in France and I have to eat at Subway? But...an unexpected option waited for me in the tiny copy of our American sammy joint.
"Steak vegetarien" the sign read. Steak? Eh...im not too into that idea. But then I glanced over the Veggie sub option. Oh lettuce and tomato sandwich. Alright, gimmie the "steak!"
Turns out it was kinda just meatloaf but made with veggie and soy. Topped with (can you believe I'm advocating sauce?!) the Southwest sauce, I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised and very satisfied and not grumpy afterward.



Lesson learned. Now I try to eat lunch at normal hours. I haven't had a dinner in town yet, I've been making my own every night. And every night that Pascal is there (a gym teacher that lives at the school three nights out of the week because he lives in southern France) he always says "tu manges tot!" (you eat early!) because I always get hungry for dinner around 6 or 6:30 and they dont eat until 7:30 or 8.

Bedroom Tour

Don't get excited. Its not that long of a tour.
Alright, as promised I'm going to start showing you around the school a bit in my vlogs. I have to keep them real short because I've been spending up to half an hour waiting for them to load.

Crimoire de Sorcieres

This is a book I came across one day while browsing in the children's section. Loved the pictures and wanted to share. Its about all the evil or powerful women in "history" although as you will see it extends to fairy tales and legends as well.











I also read James and the Giant Peach in French the other day. I love reading books like that and Harry Potter in French because I get to learn words that I might not otherwise - like grasshopper and owl. Reading Harry Potter in French is actually where the name Hibou came from :)

uhhh do you has any brovers or seesters?

>


Some cool things I taught the class today that they didn't know

Dating
-referring to a couple as "a thing"
-referring to your loved one as your "ball and chain"
-referring to your girlfriend or wife as "my old lady"
-refering to your significant other as your "main squeeze" (they really didnt get this one)
-explained how PDA is not as common in the states and explained the phrase "get a room!" (this actually kinda scandalized them!)
-explained the concept of a sugerdaddy/mama

Sports
-they pretty much couldn't imagine life without rugby and wanted me to explain the difference between that and football.. i failed
-the girls were super interested in the Pom Squad and I have been asked to find a youtube video or something to bring in


Also in other news..I have internet on my laptop at school now...much good it will do me. The school system has blocked a bunch of websites, even on my personal laptop, including facebook, dailybooth, and blogger. Don't know about skype yet but I have my fingers crossed. On top of that I don't even get internet in my room. I have to go to the kitchen or maybe I should try going out in the hall.
Its not the end of the world. I can still go to the library (where i walk everyday, buns of steel i tell you!) but it closes at 7 most days and isn't open at all on Sunday. I don't know if this will cure or intensify my facebook addiction.

Thickest Barley Stew You Will Ever Eat

I brought a few things from home in case I couldnt find them here. I brought quinoa, barley, and bulgar. One the back of the barley package there was a recipe for a soup. I was feeling more stewy.

Vegetable Barley Stew
2 to 3 cups vegetable cream based soup
1/4 cup pearled barley
handful of mushrooms, sliced
2 large carrots, sliced
half onion, sliced
1 really large clove of garlic or like 3 small ones

1. In a heavy bottom saucepan bring 1/4 cup barley and like 2 cups of veggie soup to boil ( by veggie soup I mean like a cream based thick soup, not clear veggie stock). Cover and simmer for about an hour or until the barley is soft. Stir often. If you decide to use veggie stock to make it more of a soup and less of a stew, you wont need to stir really, just like once or twice, but with cream based stuff it will all stick to the bottom if you don't stir it a bit. It will seem at first that you dont have enough barley and the stew will be thin. Never fear, it grows!
2. While this is going on prepare and saute you veggies. I like to do the garlic first, then add the onions, then add the other stuff.
3. Once the barley is soft, add the veggies and heat it all through.
4. Serve with crusty french bread or throw some avocado on top.

PS I ate this for 3 days and didnt get tired of it. I ate it cold the second two times because i dont have a microwave. Both times I ate it with half an avocado chopped up. Great.

Croq ` Soja

Ive gone to the grocery store a few times now. The first time was a mixture of excitement and stress. I was excited, for example, to find that there was BOTH vegan yogurt and pudding (its more like flan actually). This is not a product of a vegan movement, let me assure you. The French are starting to get interested in Organics and these vegan products are an offshoot of that.
I went up and down all the rows and marveled at how tiny all the boxes were and how miniature all the cans of veggies were, but also at how dang expensive it is!
To get along here you kinda have to forget how to convert Euros into dollars. You will be misserable if you convert everything and really think about how much you are spending. I spend about 20 to 30 Euros each time i grocery shop and i come home with about a third as much as I would spending the same amount at home.
I came upon these strange looking patties in the Bio section ( BIO is French for Organic) and thought I would give them a try. I was a bit miffed by them because they present them as a breakfast food for some reason. Lots of food here has little meal suggestions on the back and this one suggests grapefruit and yogurt to accompany it.
Not so for me. I have plenty of delish things to eat for breakfast and need more dinner options that dont require a microwave or an oven, as I have neither. So I decided to fry one of these bad boys up.



I know. They look kinda gross. Taking them out of their slimy little package and putting them in the frying pan I was going through all the restaurants in my head that were close by that I could go to should this be awful.



Well... not half bad actually! I had a mixture of greens, some avocado, gouda chunks, and then I crumbled the patty overtop and (gasp) topped it with bals-vin!

Oh but back to how the grocery store was stressful. Apparantly there are lines you can get in that are express lines but you can only use this line if you carried around this little scanner while you shopped. I kept seeing people scan the barcode of the stuff they were putting in their cart, but it seemed that people with hand baskes like myself were not. So i walked around, watching the natives, wondering if I was going to have to go around and find everything once I found out I had to scan things too. Turned out I didnt need to; thank god.
But, I had a little problem at the check out. In the fruit and veggie section there are scales and I saw people putting their veggies in bags then putting them on the scale, than choosing from the touchscreen which veggie they had. The machine would print out a sticker that they then put on the fruit or veggie bag.
I did the same with my apples and bananas. Now normally I would never put these things in a bag because it just seems like a waste but when in Rome... or Limoges.
I got to the checkout and the checkout lady said, no its better if you dont have a bag, and she ripped the bag of my bananas, took them out and handed them to me, then started giving me directions in French I didnt understand to go back to the fruit section and do something. I ran back there while the whole line waited and looked around frantically. Did she want me to put the sticker right on the bananas? I got frustrated and just threw them back in the pile and ran back to pay my bill.
Oh also you get charged for using grocery store bags. Really they dont even have them. I knew this and brought my messanger bag, but Leesandro didnt and they had to look around for one for him then have him pay seperately for it while everyone in line watched.

One thing tried, one thing liked. I will keep you posted as more come along!

After the first class

Ok I dont know how to make the image you see here one of my choosing. Thats why I look epileptic.

So i had my orientation and they assured me that I should be observing at least one class before teaching so tomorrow I will be doing that, and then teaching 3 or 4 other classes this week after that.
Still havent met all of my teachers that Im working with.
Slowly getting through the paperwork involved here like the:
Social Security paperwork
OFII ( bascially letting France know im here and setting up my obligitory
medical visit)
Getting insurance for the room im staying in
Carte De Sejour (something I have to get IN ADDITION to my workers visa but its
basically the same thing)
Getting my bank account set up and my salary in order
There are all kinds of other things but thats boring for you all.

I have a better idea of my role now as an assistant. I dont really need to teach them grammer but i can certainly reinforce it. For example, I plan to play Go Fish with one class this week. They will practice the numbers and also practice the verb To Have, how its conjugated and all that by saying: Do you have a Queen, ect.
Basically I need to make them speak as much as possible.

I went out to a bar last night with some new friends and one of the girls brought her French boyfriend. Man that must be such awesome awesome practice. More so because he pretty much refuses to speak English. He understands a good bit but just doesnt speak. That seems to be the problem with the children too. They can read it and understand it a lot of the time but they just wont speak.