Les vacances de printemps: Première partie

Spring break has arrived! I have had quite the start to my first week of traveling.

Last Monday, the first grade teacher I worked with took me on a day trip around the Metz area. I got to see the sites in Metz that I had not seen before, and I got to visit the Robert Schuman House and Gardens. Robert Schuman is condsidered one the founders of Europe because he helped form the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, which would eventually evolve into the European Union today. Schuman was of Luxembourgish and French-German decent, and loved his house in the Lorraine countryside.

Porte des Allemands in Metz

The Robert Schuman House and Gardens in Scy-Chazelles

Then Tuesday I went to Nice again to begin a southern France and Italy trip with some friends. The weather was gorgeous! On Wednesday, we did a day trip from Nice to Monaco. We enjoyed the small-pebbled beach, saw the outside of the palace, and I gambled away 5 € at the Casino de Monte-Carlo. Here are the picture highlights of Monco:

Palais de Monaco

View of Monaco

Casino de Monte-Carlo

After a lovely day in Monaco, we were supposed to take a flight from Nice to Venice...and then a couple hours before our flight was supposed to take off we recieved a message from EasyJet that it was annulé- canceled! Appearenly there was a strike of EasyJet personnal at the Venice airport. Luckily, we had not left for the airport and we discussed our options with a kind employee at our hostel. He recommended that we take the local train to the Italian border  the next day and buy train tickets to Venice from there. So early the next morning, we were on our way to Venice. We finally arrived in Venice at 3:40 pm.

I stayed in Venice from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon, so my friends and I wasted no time exploring this amazing city:

Going under a bridge during our gondola ride

Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs)

Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square)

View from the Campanile di San Marco 

Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)

Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square)

The last part of my Italy trip took me to Florence for the weekend. I stayed with a good friend's sister who was studying abroad there for the semester. She is an art history major and was able to explain to me the history surrounding the major landmarks and art in the city. Florence is such a beautiful city!

The Duomo

The Duomo

Basilica di Santa Croce

View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo

View from Giotto’s Campanile

One of the fake Davids in Florence

Ponte Vecchio

This break has been quite the experience so far! The adventure continues this weekend in Paris!

À la prochaine Nancy!

Time has flown by! This was our last week of work, and I certainly tried to make the most of it. It has been an extreme pleasure to get to know the other primary school assistants in Nancy! Meilleurs voeux! Best wishes for the future!

Nancy Primary School Assistants 2012-2013

Last Saturday, I went with a friend to the foire (fair) that is in Nancy for a whole month at Place Carnot. We went on several rides, but one of the most scariest was the montagne russe (roller coaster). Unlike a normal roller coaster, this one had no safety harness of any kind- you simply sat in the cart and held onto the metal bars at your side, hoping that you wouldn't fall off the ride. Obviously, we did not realize this until we had bought our tickets and were in line.

In school this week, I accompanied the first graders to the swimming pool. The students had already been divided into groups based on their swimming level. I have a lot more respect for the English teacher now because not only did she have to organize the students to get to the pool, but she is also a swimming instructor. She has to teach beginners how to swim, and in English! She had them using kick boards and noodles, allowing the students to get used to being in the water. I really am going to miss working with the teachers and students at my school, they were really welcoming this entire year.

On Wednesday, I finally visited one of the most famous museums in Nancy- the Musée de l’École de Nancy. This museum houses an enormous collection of Art Nouveau pieces, an art movement that has significantly influenced the city of Nancy. Art Nouveau was a movement that started in the late nineteenth century, and from my understanding, the philosophy of the movement was that art should be part of every aspect of life. The movement often drew inspiration from nature and incorporated this inspiration in all forms- from paintings to glass work to furniture and other everyday objects. Here are some highlights of the museum:

Stay tuned to read about my spring break travels!

La Fête des Jonquilles

Today I was very fortunate to go with an aunt and uncle to Gérardmer in the Vosges department for the Fête des Jonquilles (Daffodil Festival), an event that only happens every two years.

For those who are unfamiliar with Lorraine, here is a map of the region with its four departments (Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle, and the Vosges) (Nancy is the capital of Meurthe-et-Moselle; Bar-le-Duc is the capital of Meuse; Metz is the capital of Moselle and the official capital of Lorraine; Épinal is the capital of the Vosges):

Fun fact: The department of Meurthe-et-Moselle got its strange shape when it was formed in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. Meurthe-et-Moselle served as the border between France and Germany from 1871-1919 and during the Occupation allemande (German occupation) from 1940-1944.

Back to the Daffodil Festival- The people of Gérardmer (who live in a ski resort area) celebrate the coming of spring by decorating their town with daffodils.

Lac de Gérardmer 

Daffodil display on a building

The main event of the Daffodil Festival is the parade with the many chars (parade floats) made of daffodils. We had gorgeous weather and enjoyed the parade:

Babar!

Spiderman playing the drums! 

M&Ms!

Puss in Boots!

Shrek!

Spring has finally come to Lorraine!

Sortie à l'opéra

This week was my last time with the second graders. I am so impressed with the English language development of these students after only two years of studying the language, and I hope they continue to read and bring English books to school! The language focus this week was the 5W question words: Who? What? When? Where? Why? To help students use these words, I projected a picture of the inside of a house (complete with people doing household activities in various rooms and animals) and had students come to the board for a dialogue- posing and responding to questions using the words: who, what, where. After asking questions about the house, I projected a calendar filled with events to assist students in understanding the use of "when" in a question.

Today I went on a field trip with the first graders to the Opéra national de Lorraine. We saw a small concert of Vivaldi's Quatre Saisons (Four Seasons) with other elementary schools in Nancy. The concert was in small pieces, so that the presenter could explain to the students what parts represented what season. The students were surprisingly well-behaved during the concert because it was interactive, but walking back to school after the trip was another story. Who would want to go back to school after going to the opera?

La cuisine végétarienne

This past week I worked with the second graders, who were fresh from collecting chocolate eggs over the Easter holiday. Consequently, the vocabulary of the week focused on Easter and spring-themed words, such as "bunny", "chick", and "nest." I showed pictures of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll to the class, but obviously the students were more impressed by the pictures of colorful plastic eggs filled with candy. In geometry, the students have started learning how to identify angles, right angles, sides, and equal sides in various shapes. In math, students started to write basic multiplication sentences (without solving the problem.)

This evening the foyer where I live invited a chef and his family to show residents how to cook la cuisine végétarienne (vegetarian food). Vegetarians can have difficultly living in France because food (especially meat) is such a huge part of the French culture. The French have the expectation that you will eat what has been prepared and served to you, and restaurants will rarely allow special orders. I thought it was a neat idea to have a vegetarian chef come to they foyer to demonstrate a cuisine that many French people do not know. The meal we had was vegan because the chef only used non-animal products in his recipes. In addition, the meal had an Asian influence- tofu was incorporated in nearly every dish. The chef allowed people to assist him in cooking and we ate through several courses...

Salade aux choux rouge au vinaigre d'umeboshi (Red cabbage salad dressed in umeboshi vinegar) and
Pâté de tofu (Tofu spread)

Steak de tofu (Tofu steak) served with sauce tahin (sesame seed sauce) or sauce shoyu (soy sauce) 

Curry d'épinard au tofu lactofermenté (Tofu with curried spinach)

Mousse au chocolat végétalienne (Chocolate mousse) 

Tapioca au lait de soja et lait de coco (Coconut tapioca)

I don't think I'll ever be able to recreate these recipes, but the food was delicious and filling! Yum!