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| Laura, Evi, Caitlin, and Catia hiding from the rain with me! |
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind week for me here, but not in the same way that it has been for those of you celebrating homecoming at UW! (Woot woot- it’s Gopher Roasting Time ;) haha) I had a chance to meet a ton of assistants from all sorts of different areas (and teaching different languages- English of course, but also Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, and Arabic) within my Académie, which was really neat. Things kicked off with a visit to Avignon, where all of the Department of Vaucluse Assistants were invited to a little get-together. After waiting ~15 minutes not knowing what we were supposed to be doing, someone came to herd us into this little room with a bar and some tables, where a couple of the bigwigs said a brief welcome and shared a little bit about our area, which they assured us is the most beautiful in all of France. (Totally unbiased, of course!) We waddled back out to an ‘opening’ around the same size as the small room, we had just been in, where they proceeded to take a picture of the group. The five or so important men stood right up front and there was no attempt to have people sit/kneel/croutch etc to make sure everyone was seen, so I’m pretty sure that only about a quarter of the assistants were actually in the picture. They gave us a
cadeau (present), which turned out to be a pretty cool book about the Provence region. That was apparently the end of any organized gathering, and they let us loose on the open bar and sandwich/appetizer buffet and encouraged us to mingle. I did our best, and I met some really sweet new people, which was good because they’re the people that will be closest and easiest for me to visit when I get lonely here in lil’ ol’ Carpentras. Keep in mind that this ‘started’ at 12 (but actually more like 12:15) and it was probably 12:45 or so by the time the mingling started. At five after one, a French woman that I think worked in the building came out and told us that they needed the room and we had to head on our merry way. That was all well and good, but the tour of Palais des Papes which had been organized didn’t start til 4… so we weren’t quite sure what to do in the meantime. Caitlin and Laura (assistants from Orange) and I dropped our bags off at Marianne’s Avignon apartment. (Marianne’s also teaching in Carpentras, but she’s actually going to live in Avignon and will commute for the most part.) We headed to
la gare (the train station) because not everyone had bought their tickets to Marseille yet. We talked about what we thought the meetings and things in Marseille would be like, and one of the assistants made us laugh when he told us about a mental picture that our night at the hotel was going to be like a wild lock-in with “panties flying and everything”
J We split up a little bit to grab some lunch (mmm- Chez Nani’s!) and then Laura, Caitlin, Evi, Catia, and I headed over to Palais des Papes. We took some pictures with the lovely modern art elephant and checked out le jardin des Doms before it started to rain pretty hard. We ended up semi-stranded at jardin des Doms, and waited it out for five minutes. When it let up a bit, we made a run for it and made it to the Palais des Papes foyer before the real downpour started. I’m sure that some people chose not to come because of the rain, but there was a pretty sizable group that came, and they let us in for free and gave us the audioguides to listen to things. I’d been there pretty recently, but there are plenty of things to listen to and I also tried to pay a little more attention to the parts at the end that I’d just breezed through (there’s only so much old, empty building that I can take… trust me, you’d understand!). Everyone went through at their own pace and then Caitlin, Laura, and I stopped back at Marianne’s to grab our stuff (and pick up some wine at Nicolas, because good French wine makes everything better!) before catching the train to Marseille. Miss Hannah greeted me when I arrived and brought me to her lovely new apartment, where I met her roomie Becca. They were happy to see me and probably equally as happy to see the wine I brought ;)
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| Les voliers- yes, please! |
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| Hannah and I enjoying the view |
Tuesday I had to open my French bank account, which sounds difficult but was actually a complete breeze. They’d had us send in the documents ahead of time and the Rectorat had verified my appointment and residence in France, so I didn’t have to deal with the whole “prove that you’re living here” rigmarole I would have had to tackle otherwise. I handed my passport to a woman who photocopied it and then ushered me into a waiting area with the packets of my papers that they had received earlier. The banker lady click-click-clicked through multiple things on the computer and I was in and out in probably 10 minutes. Check! I took the opportunity to check out the Vieux Port area a little bit, and got a kick out of the vendors with the fresh fish on the side of the street. I was also amazed by the HUNDREDS of sailboats- wish I could go out on one! Maybe when I find myself a French sugar daddy, he’ll take me out ;) I’m way jealous of the Marseille assistants for being on the water- it’s the one thing I wish I had in Carpentras.
Tant pis, I guess! I wound my way back over to Hannah and Becca’s place, and Becca left to pick up Brooke, who is yet another Marseille primary assistant. I’m looking forward to hearing the three of their stories about the adorable little French children they teach! There was talk of omelettes for lunch, but then they discovered that they had no spatula, oil, or butter. So we hit up MacDo for lunch instead- epitome of class, right? I dropped my overnight bag off at the hotel where the rectorat was putting me up for the night and we met up with Caitlin and Laura, and subsequently hit up a delicious gelato place near Vieux Port. We all went with nutella flavor, which was definitely not a disappointment! We then had to meet as a group for all of the American assistants to take a bus to the General Consul’s house, where we were having dinner. The bus ride was awesome- we drove right along a route that an assistant, Katharine, said was really popular for runners (some people actually DO run in France! Not many, but a few…) and I can see why- it was Gorgeous, with a capital G. After passing through the two armed guards that verified passports to make sure we were on the guest list for the evening, we got to check out some equally amazing views from the Consul’s house. It was so nice of her to host us! We had a buffet for dinner, and the good food there was topped by some of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten. We also met a couple of diplomats from the Paris Embassy that were visiting Marseille (which may/may not have been related to the 12 suspected terrorists that were arrested in Marseille earlier in the day?) and one of them gave me his card because he told me that he had also majored in French and Bio and had been pre-med and had started med school, but then joined the foreign services because he was bored with med school. He told me to give him a call if I ever get bored
J We eventually took the bus back to the hotel, where my temporary roommate Katy (Apt), Kevin (Aix-de-Provence), Mike (Istres), Hadley (Salon de Provence), Caitlin (Orange), Laura (Orange/Bollene), and I hung out, drank some cheap French wine/beer and chatted about everything from chick flicks (Love Actually was partially filmed in Marseille) to our towns, piercings (more so with the girls), and football (american-style, more so with the boys). It was a nice way to wrap up the day! Caitlin and I also took the opportunity to call our parents to give our parents the heads up about the terrorist news and let them know that we’re doing well
J Random side note- we’re thinking we might hit up Egypt together on one of our breaks, which I’m really excited for!
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| The ballet performance- one involved crutches... |
Wednesday morning started well- we had no idea what was to come. The continental breakfast was lush, and we were there early, which meant we were some of the lucky few to get some nutella before it was all gobbled up. We knew our destination for the day was close, but we were consulting my iTouch and reviewing the directions one more time to make sure we didn’t lead others astray when one of the assistants who returned from last year, Kyle, cracked us up by pointing out that if we unwrapped ourselves from our devices and actually just looked up, the words “Universite de Provence” were plastered in enormous letters on a building to our left. Definitely one of those times when technology hindered rather than helped! When we arrived, we were greeted by one of the most disorganized chaotic situations of the trip. We had to turn in our dossiers, but half the assistants seemed to be missing this or that paper and didn’t know what to do about it/how to fill it out, and some people’s schools hadn’t even given them the folders, let alone helped them fill it out. There were also lines that double-checked paperwork and made sure that everything was set to go, whereas others (aka mine) just said thanks (
merci in real life, but you know what I mean) and good luck with your year. On the bright side (?), they did say that if there’s a problem, we’ll get an email that tells us that we’re not going to get paid for an extra month or so. No news is good news! We had some
jus d’orange and
café and did some more mingling… and some more mingling… and some more mingling, as we had to wait for all the assistants (nearly 300 of us) to finish everything. We arrived at 8:30 and didn’t head in to listen to a lecture until nearly 11. I have the feeling that things in France don’t always run quite on schedule
J We had a really long, fairly repetitive presentation and then the head of the whole Academie came to say a couple of words. It was a little sad because the speakers figuratively lost people pretty early, when they started going on long tangents rather than following a powerpoint presentation, but after not too much longer, they started literally losing people, as assistants from all areas of the room climbed awkwardly over chairs, benches, and their neighbors to escape for a bathroom or water break. We’re not talking one or two, but 15 or 20 at least. It was pretty comical to watch from the rear of the room! After the lectures, we caught a… unique? ballet performance out on the square and then ate a lovely lunch in the university cafeteria. It was another one of those days where I didn’t really know what I was eating, but it tasted great! After a question/answer session that was had some good info and a lot of non-pertinent/repetitive info, we were free to go. We bid
A bientôt to new friends and went our separate ways, with a lot of assistants leaving to catch a train home. I had the opportunity to spend one more night, and Hannah and I profited by enjoying a fabulous dinner date. We tried to eat at the Love Actually café, but it looked like they only served drinks (not food) in the evening, so we ate a restaurant nearby. It may have been one of the best meals of my life, and that’s not an exaggeration. For only 16 euro, we had three courses:
Le pizza- 4 fromages, La lasagna bolognaise, et le dessert- tiramisu for Hannah and three scoops of ice cream for me. We decided that we’ll have to come back for a reunion trip when we’re old ladies. I’m sure that we’ll eat there again sometime this year though, before we get too old and decrepit!
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| Notre Dame de la Garde- high above Marseille! |
Yesterday (Thursday) was my last partial day in Marseille, and after leaving Hannah, Becca, and Brooke to enjoy their day of
formation for primary teachers, I set off to walk to
Notre Dame de la Garde. I hadn’t been walking even five minutes when a French man (not old man by any means- I’d guess 24?) rushed up to me and gave me
bisous (the French ‘hello’ kisses that I’m sure you’ve seen in movies even if you’ve never been to France) before I really knew what was going on. He started talking to me in rapid-fire French, asking me how I was and if I remembered him and if I’d missed him. I stammered that I didn’t think that I was who he thought I was… and that we’d never met before. He seemed a little shocked, but recovered well and said that I made his day anyway. He asked what I was going and I told him I was visiting Marseille and asked how his day was going. He and his dad had had some sort of car trouble and the car was leaking gas, so he had one of those yellow gas containers and was on his way to go try to find some. He asked if he could give me his info so I could look him up on facebook and we could meet again so I wrote down his name and said goodbye. (Before you start worrying- I have no plans to add him or see him again!) I’d love to know if he actually thought I was some French person he knew or if it was just a pickup line he was dying to try. Could definitely go either way… if I picture an American man that ran up to give a random girl a big hug before realizing that she wasn’t who he thought she was, I picture him being pretty embarrassed and wouldn’t expect him to flip it around and ask to meet up again, but I’ll be the first to admit that I definitely don’t understand French men a lot of the time!
Notre Dame de la Garde was awesome- I could literally see the entire city. I also found a great little
jardin on my walk back to meet up with the girls, which would definitely be my refuge if I lived/worked in Marseille. I caught Hannah, Becca, and Brooke on their lunch break and we had a little picnic lunch in the square with sandwiches we picked up at a shop on the side of the street, and then headed to the St. Charles station to catch my train back to Avignon. There, I was just in time for the bus to Carpentras and I called the Patris family to see if someone could pick me up at the bus stop. Renaud was at home and called Steve and Joelle, who were already in town, to let them know to swing by. I had a great time vising the sea and meeting new people this week, but it’s nice to be home and not living out of a suitcase again for a bit! Today was my first ‘official’ day in
Lycee Fabre and I’ll post that separately after a bit.
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| I climbed 344 steps! A Russian woman took my pic :) |
Happy Homecoming and Go Badgers!! Missing you all and hoping for a Goldie loss J <3 Allison
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