So sometimes it's not just a vocabulary or grammatical issue that makes communication difficult...
Today was the birthday of one of the teachers at my school. Being the narcissistic person that she is, she brought in cookies for everyone and left them in the teachers' lounge with a note declaring that it was her birthday and that she was kind enough to bring these in for everyone to share. (I'm not joking, that's the rough translation of the note.) Then at the break she insisted that everyone within about 30 meters of her give her the bisous (cheek kisses) and wish her a happy birthday. Then she wrote a note on the board in the teachers' lounge that she would be using the arts and crafts room from 1:30 - 2:15 (right before I teach her kids). She proceeded to elaborate that it was for une petite boum for her class. That's right, she was throwing herself a birthday party and invited her class to go. I wasn't the only one who thought this was odd, one of the other teachers made a comment, but I digress.
So when I arrived to the classroom they were all still off partying but they had drawn all over the board with birthday wishes. And "Happy 24th Birthday" was a popular phrase. Don't get me wrong, I knew this was a joke. If the woman is a minute under 38 I'll be shocked into oblivion. So at the end of the class, like always, I said "So I'll see you again what day?" and the students answered "Thursday". So I piped in "And actually Thursday is MY birthday." The teacher looked up and I decided to go for the joke so I said, "I'll be one year younger than you!" to the teacher. She looked confused so I abandoned the joke and went for clarification and said "I saw your Happy 24th Birthday wishes on the board..." to which she replies "That was a joke" and then gave me a look that said nothing less than "you are the dumbest person I've ever laid eyes on". I tried to salvage my pride and dignity, but it was too late.
Moral of the story? Unless you're REALLY confident in your language skills don't attempt jokes.
18.5.08
Les Grandes Eaux Musicales
On Saturdays each Spring and Summer Versailles goes back a few centuries and becomes more like it was in the days of the Sun King. The 46 fountains in the 21000 acres of gardens are turned on, the gardens are in bloom, and period music plays from speakers around the paths.
Danielle and I didn't want to miss this once-in a lifetime opportunity so yesterday we headed out to see.
Versailles was expanded from a hunting lodge in a swamp to this magnificent, and sometimes overly opulent, palace by Louis XIV to prove his power and wealth to other royalty and to the masses in France.
The vast majority of the gardens and fountains were designed by Le Notre to help expand the palace's grandness. The gardens were actually designed to be an outdoor palace, with ballrooms, drawing rooms and other spaces for entertaining.
The Latona Fountain (below) illustrates the mother of Greek gods Diana and Apollo protecting her children.
Statues litter the garden and are mostly Greek and Roman in style. This is Danielle's new boyfriend. He's not particularly friendly. A little stony actually. hee hee
The Ballroom (below) is a circular garden. One half of the walls have this cascade on it. Standing there you could actually imagine people in huge skirts and high wigs dancing to candlelight and live string quartet.
The Fountains of Apollo's Chariot is one of the largest fountains at Versailles. It's right in front of the Grand Canal and next to Marie Antoinette's personal peasant village. Where she went to pretend she was a peasant with her perfumed and brushed sheep.
This fountain has some seriously somber music playing which makes sense, since it's of Enceladus, chief of the mythical Greek Titans, who is being punished by the gods from Mount Olympus.
This fountain is called the Dragon Fountain. Instead of breathing fire he's breathing water into the air.
The 10 minute finale uses so much water that all other fountains are turned off. The Neptune Fountain was a centerpiece of Versailles when it was used as a palace and everyone congregates there now at the end of the afternoon to witness the grand finale.
Overall a spectacular day! I felt very royal the entire time. If you're ever in Paris on a Saturday between April and October be sure to go check this out!!
Danielle and I didn't want to miss this once-in a lifetime opportunity so yesterday we headed out to see.
Versailles was expanded from a hunting lodge in a swamp to this magnificent, and sometimes overly opulent, palace by Louis XIV to prove his power and wealth to other royalty and to the masses in France.
The vast majority of the gardens and fountains were designed by Le Notre to help expand the palace's grandness. The gardens were actually designed to be an outdoor palace, with ballrooms, drawing rooms and other spaces for entertaining.
The Latona Fountain (below) illustrates the mother of Greek gods Diana and Apollo protecting her children.
Statues litter the garden and are mostly Greek and Roman in style. This is Danielle's new boyfriend. He's not particularly friendly. A little stony actually. hee hee
The Ballroom (below) is a circular garden. One half of the walls have this cascade on it. Standing there you could actually imagine people in huge skirts and high wigs dancing to candlelight and live string quartet.
The Fountains of Apollo's Chariot is one of the largest fountains at Versailles. It's right in front of the Grand Canal and next to Marie Antoinette's personal peasant village. Where she went to pretend she was a peasant with her perfumed and brushed sheep.
This fountain has some seriously somber music playing which makes sense, since it's of Enceladus, chief of the mythical Greek Titans, who is being punished by the gods from Mount Olympus.
This fountain is called the Dragon Fountain. Instead of breathing fire he's breathing water into the air.
The 10 minute finale uses so much water that all other fountains are turned off. The Neptune Fountain was a centerpiece of Versailles when it was used as a palace and everyone congregates there now at the end of the afternoon to witness the grand finale.
Overall a spectacular day! I felt very royal the entire time. If you're ever in Paris on a Saturday between April and October be sure to go check this out!!
17.5.08
La greve
So Thursday I only had to teach one of my six scheduled classes. Why? Because of la greve. That means "the strike". For the fourth, or maybe it's the fifth, time this year the teachers have gone on strike. Strikes in France are a little different. Unions are required to notify city hall of their intent to strike a few weeks before the strike and for how long. So most teachers' strikes are one day. So for that one day the teachers don't go to work and there's usually a rally and a parade. The weather was fantastic on Thursday so the turnout was great. And I went down with my camera to capture this ever-present part of French life. I saw two of my teachers and a friend while I was there. They all thought it was funny that I was taking pictures. When I told them it was for a "a year in the life of France" type photo album they suddenly didn't think it was funny anymore and totally understood why I would be there. It's just so accepted. Hilarious. Ok, well that's the story behind the photos. Have a great weekend.
And congratulations to all the ONU (and other) college grads this weekend, especially my favorite new graduate... JARED!!! :)
14.5.08
Back from the Riviera
And, unfortunately, my fabulous vacation to the coast of southern France has come to its conclusion. Danielle and I got back on Monday morning, but had 5 really great days in the sun and heat. And best of all we returned to Chartres and found similar weather! This week we had Monday off for Pentecost (working in a not totally secular society has its advantages) and tomorrow, Thursday, there's yet another strike so I only have to teach 1 of my 6 scheduled classes. No complaints here! But I'm sure you're all much more interested in my trip, so here you go:
Danielle and I took a night train to Nice on Tuesday after work and arrived on Wednesday. Since we were both a little tired we decided to stay in Nice and look around. I'd been to Nice in 2005 on my backpacking trip, but that was in December. It's much more crowded and enjoyable in May. We walked through the flower and produce market and were taken in by the strawberries. So we bought some...
... and then we walked down to the Promenade des Anglais and the beach...
... to eat our stawberries! They were so juicy and delicious!
Afterwards we climbed up Castle Hill to enjoy the views. We found out it was nice and warm in the park up there so we sat down to read our books. It inevitably turned into a nap, but that was ok too.
Later we went to see the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Nice. In the 1800s there was quite the Russian population in Nice and most of them were very wealthy, so they built themselves a very elaborate place of worship. It was pretty cool on the inside, though I wasn't allowed to take photos.
Thursday was a national holiday, so everyone had the same idea we did... head for the beach!! We hit up the beach at Antibes, about an hour south west along the coast from Nice. The weather was perfect, but the water too cold, so we sat and read and I slathered on sunscreen every hour when my alarm went off. I really didn't want to get burnt, and I managed not to! :) Danielle just kept all her clothes on to protect herself.
The beach was pretty packed, and yes, there were lots of topless sunbathers. Though most of them were under the age of 10. Doesn't really matter then, does it? Saves on the cost of a bathing suit I suppose.
Friday we took another bus to Menton. It's the last city in France before the Italian border along the coast. It's claim to faim is two-fold. It holds the Citrus Festival in February and it has, on average, 316 days of sun per year. The sun and tropical climate mean that the plant life in Menton is amazing! We didn't make it out to the Jardin Exotique, but just walking around town was enough. Here's some accurately-named Bird of Paradise flowers.
And even the town was fairly picture-perfect. We wandered around town, along the harbor wall and the beach and had a really great lunch. A very relaxed day.
Saturday we went to Eze le Village. It's not exactly along the coast. It's up in the hills behind Nice and has a fantastic view of the coastline.
The village is tiny, but there's another Jardin Exotique at the very top of the hill. So we climbed up, weaving through tiny streets and ducking under passageways, and found ourselves in a strange cactus garden with great views. And again it was sunny. Apparently going up meant we were a lot closer to the sun. Despite sunscreen and frequent reapplications the tops of my shoulders did get burnt that day. Not too badly though.
The coast and the cacti.
There were some really interesting benches near a waterworks and we convinced someone to take our photo as we burned.
Our hostel wasn't exactly in Nice. It was a 20 minute tram ride and 30 minute walk away, but the views out of the window in our room were nice. I don't think I'd recommend the hostel though. If you want to "party" and "meet" people go for it though.
Hee hee. Even on vacation we're huge dorks. Champion is a grocery store in France. I think Danielle does a very nice impression of their mascot, don't you?
On Sunday we had another night train to catch at 9pm but we spent the day doing something we definitely can't do back here in Chartres: we sat on the beach. This time we went to Cap d'Ail, just before Monaco to a very secluded beach called Plage Mala. It was really beautiful. Because it's harder to get to it wasn't nearly as crowded and there was no traffic noise either. Very relaxing. I was even brave enough to go into the water! I ran in, stayed in for about 5 seconds and ran out to warm myself up again in the sun. And that was our vacation. More info on boring day to day life soon!
Danielle and I took a night train to Nice on Tuesday after work and arrived on Wednesday. Since we were both a little tired we decided to stay in Nice and look around. I'd been to Nice in 2005 on my backpacking trip, but that was in December. It's much more crowded and enjoyable in May. We walked through the flower and produce market and were taken in by the strawberries. So we bought some...
... and then we walked down to the Promenade des Anglais and the beach...
... to eat our stawberries! They were so juicy and delicious!
Afterwards we climbed up Castle Hill to enjoy the views. We found out it was nice and warm in the park up there so we sat down to read our books. It inevitably turned into a nap, but that was ok too.
Later we went to see the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Nice. In the 1800s there was quite the Russian population in Nice and most of them were very wealthy, so they built themselves a very elaborate place of worship. It was pretty cool on the inside, though I wasn't allowed to take photos.
Thursday was a national holiday, so everyone had the same idea we did... head for the beach!! We hit up the beach at Antibes, about an hour south west along the coast from Nice. The weather was perfect, but the water too cold, so we sat and read and I slathered on sunscreen every hour when my alarm went off. I really didn't want to get burnt, and I managed not to! :) Danielle just kept all her clothes on to protect herself.
The beach was pretty packed, and yes, there were lots of topless sunbathers. Though most of them were under the age of 10. Doesn't really matter then, does it? Saves on the cost of a bathing suit I suppose.
Friday we took another bus to Menton. It's the last city in France before the Italian border along the coast. It's claim to faim is two-fold. It holds the Citrus Festival in February and it has, on average, 316 days of sun per year. The sun and tropical climate mean that the plant life in Menton is amazing! We didn't make it out to the Jardin Exotique, but just walking around town was enough. Here's some accurately-named Bird of Paradise flowers.
And even the town was fairly picture-perfect. We wandered around town, along the harbor wall and the beach and had a really great lunch. A very relaxed day.
Saturday we went to Eze le Village. It's not exactly along the coast. It's up in the hills behind Nice and has a fantastic view of the coastline.
The village is tiny, but there's another Jardin Exotique at the very top of the hill. So we climbed up, weaving through tiny streets and ducking under passageways, and found ourselves in a strange cactus garden with great views. And again it was sunny. Apparently going up meant we were a lot closer to the sun. Despite sunscreen and frequent reapplications the tops of my shoulders did get burnt that day. Not too badly though.
The coast and the cacti.
There were some really interesting benches near a waterworks and we convinced someone to take our photo as we burned. 
Our hostel wasn't exactly in Nice. It was a 20 minute tram ride and 30 minute walk away, but the views out of the window in our room were nice. I don't think I'd recommend the hostel though. If you want to "party" and "meet" people go for it though.
Hee hee. Even on vacation we're huge dorks. Champion is a grocery store in France. I think Danielle does a very nice impression of their mascot, don't you?
On Sunday we had another night train to catch at 9pm but we spent the day doing something we definitely can't do back here in Chartres: we sat on the beach. This time we went to Cap d'Ail, just before Monaco to a very secluded beach called Plage Mala. It was really beautiful. Because it's harder to get to it wasn't nearly as crowded and there was no traffic noise either. Very relaxing. I was even brave enough to go into the water! I ran in, stayed in for about 5 seconds and ran out to warm myself up again in the sun. And that was our vacation. More info on boring day to day life soon!
5.5.08
Austrian Adventure
So last weekend Danielle and I visited Hallstatt, Austria. After a plane and two trains we arrived early in the morning. The train station is actually across the lake from the village so we took a chilly ferry across the lake.
The town is literally picture perfect. It's tiny and squashed between a lake and a mountain.
We dropped our stuff off at the hotel (Yes, it was a hotel. Not because I'm a newfound millionaire but because it was the only place with an opening.) and found this Christmas card attached to their reception desk. Folks, that is THE Rick Steves. :)
We walked around town for a while and just took in the sights, even the crazy signs.
Then we decided to check out the salt mine. Hallstatt was actually there before Rome. The importance of the town because of the salt mine actually lent its name to a period in time. To protect your clothes from the salt and to help with the slide they give you these really sexy jumpsuits to wear. The fabulous Danielle models the red variety for us:
Then you walk into the mountain with your guide.
And descend into the depths. Salt isn't really all that interesting. But what's in the mine certainly is!
There's slides!! There's a small one for practice and then this one. It's about 150m long and they take your photo as you slide down. Like a prehistoric theme park. I succumbed to it and bought the souvenir photo. So here's my photo of the photo. And for the record 24.6 km/h is about 15mph.
The entrance to the mine is really high up. We took a funicular, but at least the views were great! That's the village from above.
That's the funicular on the ride down. I focused on the up and not the down. Mainly because it was really really high and really really fast and kinda scary.
The cemetery in Hallstatt is really tiny. It fits in with the rest of the village. And the graves are really beautiful. The little gardens are well-tended and colorful. It was a kind of cemetery I wouldn't mind being buried in. But there's a downside...
The cemetery is actually too small. So every so often they have to dig up the bones to make room for the newly dead. So they have a Bone Chapel. The priests dig up the bones carefully and ceremoniously paint them and write the birth and death dates on the skulls and then arrange them. Danielle and I still can't decide if it's cool or creepy.
The next day we took a hike up into the valley to see some the natural beauty of the Salzkammergut district. A very helpful sign told us that this rock fell in a huge rock fall about 12,000 years ago. Not sure how accurate that is, but it's still awesomely huge!
After a very very very long hike up approximately a million stairs we got to the biggest waterfall of them all. There were several waterfalls but this was the most impressive. It would be neat to see at the first thaw with all that powerful water.
Speaking of powerful water...
And the view out to the lake and the village from the back of the valley.
And then we rented a boat and went out on the lake for a nice little drift. It was really relaxing and the views of the valley and the village were really cool.
Overall it was a great mini vacation. Just a primer for our next trip. We leave tomorrow evening for the south of France. A week of fun in the sun on the beach. See you in a week!
The town is literally picture perfect. It's tiny and squashed between a lake and a mountain.
We dropped our stuff off at the hotel (Yes, it was a hotel. Not because I'm a newfound millionaire but because it was the only place with an opening.) and found this Christmas card attached to their reception desk. Folks, that is THE Rick Steves. :)
We walked around town for a while and just took in the sights, even the crazy signs.
Then we decided to check out the salt mine. Hallstatt was actually there before Rome. The importance of the town because of the salt mine actually lent its name to a period in time. To protect your clothes from the salt and to help with the slide they give you these really sexy jumpsuits to wear. The fabulous Danielle models the red variety for us:
Then you walk into the mountain with your guide.
And descend into the depths. Salt isn't really all that interesting. But what's in the mine certainly is!
There's slides!! There's a small one for practice and then this one. It's about 150m long and they take your photo as you slide down. Like a prehistoric theme park. I succumbed to it and bought the souvenir photo. So here's my photo of the photo. And for the record 24.6 km/h is about 15mph. 
The entrance to the mine is really high up. We took a funicular, but at least the views were great! That's the village from above.
That's the funicular on the ride down. I focused on the up and not the down. Mainly because it was really really high and really really fast and kinda scary.
The cemetery in Hallstatt is really tiny. It fits in with the rest of the village. And the graves are really beautiful. The little gardens are well-tended and colorful. It was a kind of cemetery I wouldn't mind being buried in. But there's a downside...
The cemetery is actually too small. So every so often they have to dig up the bones to make room for the newly dead. So they have a Bone Chapel. The priests dig up the bones carefully and ceremoniously paint them and write the birth and death dates on the skulls and then arrange them. Danielle and I still can't decide if it's cool or creepy.
The next day we took a hike up into the valley to see some the natural beauty of the Salzkammergut district. A very helpful sign told us that this rock fell in a huge rock fall about 12,000 years ago. Not sure how accurate that is, but it's still awesomely huge!
After a very very very long hike up approximately a million stairs we got to the biggest waterfall of them all. There were several waterfalls but this was the most impressive. It would be neat to see at the first thaw with all that powerful water.
Speaking of powerful water...
And the view out to the lake and the village from the back of the valley.
And then we rented a boat and went out on the lake for a nice little drift. It was really relaxing and the views of the valley and the village were really cool.
Overall it was a great mini vacation. Just a primer for our next trip. We leave tomorrow evening for the south of France. A week of fun in the sun on the beach. See you in a week!
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