les mots "noire," "blanche," et "ronde"

Time flies!  I followed Resolution #10 and found a place to play piano!  I talked to the music teacher, and he said I can borrow the key from the front desk whenever the music room is free.  I am really excited about this and have already been there twice.

I went to talk to the woman at the front desk to borrow the key, then I went out to run some errand, and when I came back, she goes, "Rebecca, do you teach piano lessons at all?"  Finally figured out she was asking for herself, so I said yes.  She had her first piano lesson today, and I feel like I'm going to learn as much as her with this process.  Today, I already learned that quarter notes are called black notes (noires), half notes are called white notes (blanches), and whole notes are called round notes (rondes).  Also, she had no clue what I was talking about with A, B, C, D, E, F, and G because in France (and Europe?), they use Do, Re, Mi, etc.  Going to be a little hard to get used to.  Anyway, she wants to have lessons twice a week, and she wants to pay me 5 Euros a lesson...Okay! Why not?  I was going to do it for free!

Tonight, I went to a play that my 5th grade class put on.  I went by myself, but soon my 2nd grade fan club was seated next to me, all six of them.  Ha.  Several of the kids tapped their parents on their shoulders and said, "Mom, it's Rebecca!"  Felt like a celebrity.  Also, It was so funny to hear how they reacted to the play.  ("C'est trop bon!"/It's too good!)

Regarding the play... One of the 5th graders in the program mouthed the words of every word that was spoken in the play.  Every word!  He had memorized the entire script!  What else...It seemed like a late show for elementary students.  It started at 8:30 p.m., and there was a 30 minute intermission, so it ended at 10:30 p.m.  I understood about half of what was going on, but it seemed like there were a few jokes that seemed a little mature for their age.. (Scene with a boyfriend/girlfriend: Her: "We've been kissing a lot."  Him: "Yes, we've been kissing so much that our first-born child is probably on the way.")

Because I teach all the kids in that school (grades 1-5), it was fun to make connections and see who are siblings.  Also, the play was really helpful for me because before the play, they showed photos and names of all the kids, and then at the end, each kid said his or her name.  So, now I'm pretty sure I know all of the students' names in that class!

la phrase "C'est moi!"

I followed Resolution #4 recently, and bought something at the grocery store that I had never seen before: a tube of Creme de Marrons.

Only 58 cents!

Kind of unappetizing coming from a sort of toothpaste tube, but it still tastes like Creme de Marrons!  Among other chestnut-related items, this is the stuff that they were selling at the Chestnut Festival in Privas back in October.  Wish I had seen this before going home for Christmas!

I've heard the phrase "C'est moi!" when buying something at a store or cafe.  Literally, it means "It's me!"  Usually the exchange goes like this:

Shop owner gives you the chestnut spread/cafe au lait/Vietnamese salad you just bought.

Customer: "Merci!"

Shop owner: "C'est moi!"

As in, "It's me!  The pleasure is mine!  I should be the one thanking you!"

Last night, I went to a show called Banjofolies, which is part of the Culture in Crest series where they bring different acts to the stage at the movie theater.  There's usually a good turnout, and I see several students there.

If you've seen the movie A Mighty Wind, these guys were like the French version of the Folksmen.  Three guys, three instruments, corny jokes.  They played Barbie Girl, We Are the World, and Auld Lang Syne, as well as YMCA, complete with Village People hats.

The BanjoManiacs

It was a fun show, and even more fun that something like this came to Crest!

l'expression "pas mal de + noun"

Wow.  I haven't written anything for 41 days!  I'm planning to write a major "catch up" post tomorrow night, but for now, I'll write about an expression I hear all the time and my New Year's resolutions.


First of all, I had never noticed the expression "pas mal de + noun" in French before this year, but I feel like I hear it at least three times a day here.  Translated word by word, it means "not bad of + noun."  Some examples of how it is used...

Tu es allée à la médiathèque de Crest?  Il y a pas mal de DVDs.

(Have you been to the médiathèque in Crest? There’s not a bad selection of DVDs.)

Il y a pas mal de place dans le frigo.

(There’s quite a bit of space in the fridge.)

J’ai apporté  pas mal de choses des Etats-Unis.

(I brought quite a few things from the U.S.)

Now for the resolutions.  I'll do 12 for 2012:

1. Meet more locals.

2. Take more pictures.

3. Visit as many shops/restaurants in Crest as possible and as is interesting, even the ones on the other side of the river! (Let's be honest, I'm probably not going to go to the moto store, and I probably shouldn't eat too many kebabs).

4. Buy something new/different/that I've never seen before at the grocery store every week. (Finally tried Speculoos this week.)

5. Go to the médiathèque more often to check out DVDs, books and music.

6. Go to the big city (Valence) more often.

7. Set aside a few specific hours each week to actually sit down and study French.  (Might sound weird since I'm in France, but I feel like I've hit a language plateau.)

8. Finish my lesson planning for the following week by Thursday afternoon (instead of Sunday night at 11:59 p.m.)

9. Find a tutoring/private English lesson job. (Applied to a job, and waiting to set up an interview).
10. Find a place to practice piano.

All of these resolutions will hopefully lead me to:

11. Write at least three blog posts per week

and

12. Learn more French words and expressions!

As you can see, I have pas mal de New Year's resolutions.

Happy New Year!!

View from my window of the "Christmas Pyromusical" a few weeks ago.

le mot "bouchon d'oreille"

For the past 5 or 6 weeks, a fellow assistant here had been trying to get people to go to a Stromae concert with her, either on Nov. 30 or April 28.  Honestly, from the clip I saw of his music, I didn't think I'd like it (it looked really depressing!), but I told her I'd like to go because it would be fun to go to a concert here.  Up until last week, we were planning on the April 28 concert because the Nov. 30 concert was too expensive at 30 Euros a ticket.  But then!  She found two tickets for half price on leboncoin.fr (basically the French craigslist).

So, we chanced it, and took the train to Lyon, and went to the bus stop near where the woman selling the tickets works.  She said she would be in a white car near the bus stop.  This is what we saw:

And actually, she was in the white car parked in front of these ones!  Anyway, it all worked out.  She was selling them because she had been given them by a radio or TV station or something.

We walked in and exchanged the radio/TV vouchers for our tickets.  Right when we walked in, we were approached by volunteers looking for donations for World Aids Day in exchange for red ribbons.  Then, we were given bouchons d'oreille (ear plugs) and asked to complete a survey about hearing loss prevention.

Then, finally, the music!  Mariama (a German who sang in English and introduced the songs in French) was the opener.  And then....

Stromae!

(Photo credit to fellow American assistant)

The concert was a lot of fun.  He's famous for Alors On Danse.  I'd never heard it before, but now I can't get it out of my head!  Apparently the song is at least two years old.  I wonder if he's gotten sick of it at all... he played three versions of it last night!  Including this slower version.  He had a video of an orchestra playing, but it was still cool!

A short clip of the intro to Alors On Danse at the concert....

le mot "muscade"

Tonight I went to yoga with an American friend in Crest who has lived here for several years.  I mentioned that I promised to make a pumpkin pie for my 3rd grade class tomorrow.  She said that cans of pumpkin are among the American foods she stockpiles, and she's picking up some more when she goes home for Christmas, so she gave me a can of pumpkin!  Which led to....

My dilemma:

Save time and be sure that's it's going to taste like pumpkin pie and be something I'm not embarrassed to serve?

Or chance it with this mysterious wedge of "le courge" that I bought three days ago and save the can of pumpkin for myself and others who would truly appreciate it?

I went with le courge.

Wow, this looks like pumpkin puree!

Can of pumpkin looking on in disgust.  Muscade (nutmeg) passing judgment as well.

Finished!

Well, they've never had pumpkin pie before, so I guess they can't really judge this no-brown-sugar-or-cloves-or-ginger-or-cardamom-probably-butternut-squash-rectangular-pie.

.....Right? :)

I was stressed out about making this, but now I'm more stressed out that my two other classes at this school are going to find out that I didn't make "pumpkin" pie for them.  That's okay.  They laughed at my Barney song.

It's 12:30 a.m. now. I just personified a can of pumpkin and some nutmeg, so I'm going to take that as a sign that I should probably go to bed soon.  Bonne nuit!

that I'm making a pumpkin pie for 22 French 2nd and 3rd graders

Yesterday and today, I talked about Thanksgiving in English/French for the last 10 minutes in some of my classes.  I showed images like the Mayflower, turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, the Macy's parade, a football game and the classic Norman Rockwell painting of the grandparents serving their family.

Today after the presentation, the teacher said "Oh, maybe Rebecca could make a pumpkin pie and bring it next Tuesday, that would be nice!"  So....... I am!

About 30 language assistants from the area are getting together for Thanksgiving this weekend.  I'd say more than half are not American, so it will be fun to see what they think of the food and traditions.  When Thursday rolls around, I'm really going to miss my family, but hopefully this Thanksgiving with friends will help.  Anyway, another American is making a couple of pumpkin pies WITHOUT CANNED PUMPKIN, so hopefully I'll get some pumpkin pie advice before next Tuesday rolls around.

Also, I taught some verbs in three of my classes today. Skate, swim, read, listen, eat, drink, etc.  I had the students act out a verb, another student would guess, and then they would come up to the front of the class and act out the next one.  I feel like I and fellow Americans would generally mime "eat" as a person shoveling food into their mouth.  A ten-year-old boy came up to the front of the class and mimed using a knife and fork.

Classe.

le mot "théine"

A few short stories today....


I drink a fair amount of coffee and tea, so I thought I was pretty familiar with what they contain and their respective effects.  A few weeks ago, someone said that they didn't want to have any tea after dinner because of the théine in it, and they didn't want to stay awake.  I had never heard of this before, but it makes sense.  Actually, it almost makes more sense in French than English.  There is caféine in café, there is théine in thé, and there used to be cocaïne in Coca (Cola).


Another interesting term is "classe."  I'm not exactly sure if that's how it's spelled for this meaning, but I'm interpreting it as "classy."  Last week, I told someone I came from Chicago, and they said "Classe."  Today, I presented Thanksgiving to my 8-year-old class....what we eat and what we do to celebrate.  After I presented all the food, a boy raised his hand and said, "Ah, c'est la classe chez toi?"  Which I can only imagine means, "Oh, it's pretty nice there in America, huh?"


Also, in that same class today, a girl raised her and and told on the boy sitting next to her.  "Rebecca, il a dit 'Rebecca, Rebe-caca.' C'est pas bon de dire ca."  (He called you caca.  It's not good to say that.) I laughed... probably not the best response.


The 5-year-olds make me feel like a celebrity.  They see me in the school courtyard during their recess sometimes and run up to me.  It's so cute, because you can tell they want to stay stuff to me, but they can't really say anything in English, so they just run up and say my name and touch me, which is a little strange but really cute.


I think French children have trouble hearing words that are almost the same in French and English.  We played Bingo with colors today in the 5-year-old class.  I would say a color, and there was a little boy who thought every color was orange.  Here is how similar these two words are.  The word is orange in English, and the word is orange in French.  They are pronounce differently, but they are still really close.  Anyway, it was funny because the exchange went like this (French in italics):
Me calling out Bingo colors: Red!
Boy to his friend: Oh, it's orange! Orange!
Me: No.  That's orange.  Next, green!
Boy to his friend: Orange!
Me: No.  It's... you... orange is orange!