June and Yet Not Summer

I have been a busy bee, but I don't have many fun stories to share.  Last week Kyle and I had a picnic in a cute park by the river with Nyanza and some of her Strasbourg friends.  We bid farewell to our friend Emma with a dinner; she's off to Columbia next year to fulfill her dream of being the French Blair Waldorf.  Last night we went to see Lauren sing with her choir along with Michael (her husband) and Sarah (a PhD friend at GTL).  Those are the highlights with no corresponding photographs.

During the week, school is getting harder and harder to focus on.  The children are antsy and would rather be outside playing; what dope decided that French students were better off indoors for the whole month of June?  Or should I say, why would they do this to the teachers?  It's funny~I think summer and work have been synonymous since I was in high school.  Why can I not muster the strength to be on top of lesson plans for the next three weeks.  Because it's unnatural~that's why.  The last day of school is July 2nd, and you can bet those children will all be learning about American Independence day.

My class at GTL has also started to take over my life.  Rather than just being one of those creepy old people who audits a class and doesn't participate, my professor has mistaken me for one of the undergrads who has to lose sleep over assignments.  Each week we read at least 30 pages of text in French~which isn't so bad and usually very interesting.  Then we must write a summary and a little something something about what we liked.  We've already had to prepare presentations, and I just missed a deadline on an outline for our first essay.  I forgot the summer pace of classes was a bit nuts... I really love getting the extra french practice and being challenged~ in a normal day what I say in French is limited to phrases like "take out your English notebooks" or "stop hitting Alexis with a ruler" or "no, we are not playing 'Telephone' or 'Simon Says...' today...sorry kid".  I wouldn't be worried about these university assignments so much especially since I'm not being graded, but the professor has the right to kick me out if I get unruly.  Come on July!  Prof Ippolito~your class will be my top priority in just a few weeks...

...or maybe I spoke too soon.  Week 1 of July~I am jet setting to London with Audrey and her mom Sheri.  Since Audrey is such a Shakespeare & Harry Potter buff, we'll likely spend the majority of our time in search for literary lieux.  I have only one place I'd really like to see is the Benjamin Franklin house.  Hopefully I can convince the Lewis' that it's a worthy destination~word on the street is that he used to open the huge windows facing the streets and recline in the nude to take an air bath.  I'm sure it was less refreshing to his neighbors and likely a nasty habit he picked up while in Paris.  Any other recommendations?

Show & Tell?  Yes indeed!

 The first contribution by Hugo A.~I love it when the boys make me a homemade handy craft.  It's now adorning my pencil case.

Kyle gave me this last photo to share with yall.  Despite feeling unusually busy, I still happily make time for naps.  Since we have no blankets in our household, Kyle graciously bestows upon me his large Carhartt.

It's really quite cozy.

Hope some of yall are able to enjoy a vacation or trip this summer.  I'll have an adventure to report later this week~should be good.  A bientot!

Francofun!

Friday night we had two of the coolest guys over for dinner.  Jonathan and Andreas are two of Kyle's classmates from Supelec (his super smart French electrical engineering school).  Forever and a day ago, they had us over for dinner, and we kept promising we'd have them over soon.  Well, they are departing for Lyon and Paris (respectively) like today to start their internships (a Supelec requirement for graduation~pray that Kyle receives his soon.  He should start in May, unlike his buds).  It was a lovely evening to talk about what's on the horizon for them and when we'll see them next.  We are definitely making a trip to Lyon to see Jonathan; I was hoping we'd have an excuse to travel to my old home.

Andreas & Jonathan on our tiny sofa

Last fall~they prepared an enormous meal for us and we greedily ate it not thinking about reciprocating the gesture for almost 6 months.  Greedy Hams.

The menu was quite awesome.  Jonathan liked the sweet potatoes we made for Thanksgiving, so Kyle thought why not make them again?  For dessert we whipped up a delicious banana pudding a la En Vivo Tertulia recipe.  Will Hudson and I were pudding making fiends back in the spring of 2006.  The main dish was the ever popular and cleverly named I would do anything for loaf made popular by Keight's recipe recreation blog giveaway.  If you make three recipes she's posted on her blog and send pictures and reviews of the recipe and do it before her other readers, you qualify one of her super cute handmade items.  I don't think it counts if you make your husband cook it and then review how well he made it.  Alas, I got a picture of the chef en train de preparing our meat.

Chef Kyle rockin' his bacon covered meaty dish before cooked to perfection

Brave Little Toaster~Meatloaf coupled with sweet potatoes pushing our toaster oven to the limits

Kyle verifying that it's working it!

Et voila!  A perfectly brown meal...

This is what I made with just a little help from Kyle.

It looks like the room is on fire behind me... we can't be concerned with such things with the camera timer is counting down...

The evening concluded with a petit concert for our friends.  Kyle brought out the banjo and they wanted me to sing.  I grabbed the guitar and we had a little performance for them.  Rest assure, we played some Avett Brothers and Wagon Wheel~these are musical bread and butter to the Hamiltons.  Perhaps we are just stuck in our ways.

A boy and his banjo

Wagon Wheel...hopefully we'll tire of this song before yall do.

Show & Tell~Thursday after lunch, a third grader named Louane ran up to me in the hall way with this precious little trinket.  She even fastened it around my wrist before dashing back to her classroom.  I am quite impressed with her skills and think it's the cutest little bracelet ever.  

What a sweet treasure

 That's all for now friends.  Hope you are doing very well.  I always love hearing from you so feel free to leave a message here or on facebook or wherever.  A plus!

Half way through October?

Many say time flies when you are having fun.  I think time just flies.  Sorry to those who have checked for updates the last few weeks only to find that I have been MIA.  I'll update you on how life in Metz is.

Kyle's has been in school a little over a month now.  It's been a big challenge so far; we anticipated that the language would give him trouble, but never guessed that the material would be tricky.  Thankfully his class is full of lots of friendly and smart students who record the course material like scribes.  His classmates have become our friends.  They've been nice enough to invite us over for dinner, play SingStar, have coffee (with a Senseo none the less!), go downtown for an evening, and watch Gossip Girl.  They are just a lot fun to be around, and we hope to get to know them better this year.

Kyle & me downtown one evening

I started my job October 2nd.  It was nice to finally have an occupation; I was feeling a little useless after a while.  I had a lot of unanswered questions about what my job would be all about especially since I have had no training as an educator.  Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to worry the French government too much if you aren't a teacher.  If your mother tongue is English, you are clearly endowed with the gift to instruct others in its spoken form.  So I dove in headfirst at the elementary schools.  I prepared a couple of classes focused on introducing yourself.  It has been a delight as well as a struggle in each class--the children often look at me as if I have 3 heads when I speak.  Occasionally, I'll want to throw in the towel when the class erupts in French murmurs and won't quiet down.  Without a set curriculum provided by the school district or even a text book, I am coming up with it as I go and praying that the children will have learned something by the end of the school year.  Thankfully I still have 8 months to get it right.  I'm even more grateful that at the end of this week I get a 2 week vacation where I can create my game plan with each of my 7 classes in mind.

Introduction Worksheet for school

Now for the fun stuff...Kyle and I have been enjoying our little dorm a bunch.  We recently conquered the conversion of the Nestle Tollhouse cookie into mL & Celsius.  It was also tricky tracking down authentic brown sugar.  Everyone will try to tell you that they know what brown sugar is...in truth they are trying to give you raw or cane sugar--not the same thing.  Baking powder is also hard to come by.  After many google searches, we were able to complete our homemade cookies.  They were even a hit among the Supeleciens (supelec students).  We will likely continue baking them as it is nice to have a treat that reminds us of home.

Highly coveted brown sugar (Vergeoise) and baking powder (Poudre a Lever)

Last week our internet went down for a day.   It turns out that while we were cut off from the outside world, the weather decided to pull a 180 on us.  We ventured to the grocery store for some much needed essentials.  It was too cold to take our bikes, and we just kept commenting on how cold it was.  When we were able to check the weather online, we were astonished to find that autumn had ducked out early and winter filled its place eagerly.  Anybody who has lived in Europe knows to dread the highs under 10C and the negative lows. With the dawning of our six month winter, we are now actively shopping for a new coat and scarf for Kyle... preferably a plaid scarf.

Goodbye Fall!

We are really grateful for our American friends.  I got to spend some time with one friend this week who is married.  It was nice being able to talk about how your relationship is affected by this big move and adjusting to life abroad.  Kyle and I also are getting more acquainted with Georgia Tech students here; everyone is so nice.  We believe we are very fortunate. 

Lastly, I have some prayer request.  At some point during our move, I think I injured my neck.  I've had neck and back problems for some time, but a new symptom has popped up.  I am getting headaches that start in my neck and work there way up to only one side of my head.  Sometimes it's the left side and sometimes it's the right.  The right side headaches are really really bad.  It hasn't occurred (thankfully) on a workday yet, and we're hoping it stays that way.  We are just praying that they go away.  If it gets worse, we are praying for a good doctor as well. We are also praying for better understanding with French, good health for both of us, and good friendships.

I'll be updating again very shortly on Kyle & my trip to Saarbrucken, Deutschland.  Stay tuned!

Jour d'EE-KAY-UH (Ikea day)

Yesterday Kyle didn't have any afternoon classes.  We determined the best use of our time would be to transform our dull dorm into a cozy apartment to which we won't be embarrassed to invite friends.  We set our budget to equal the fee that agencies charge to find an authentically French apartment.  It was a cost we were sadly prepared to pay, but now we feel our investment has been put to better use.  After all, we've just been able to make friends; it'd stink to move farther away. Without further adieu, let me present to you our extreme dorm makeover.

*Our twin beds have been converted to an enormous monster bed with a mattress topper, new sheets, and duvet with a fun cover.  We also got matching bedside lamps.

 

*Our drab spare bedroom has been renewed with our sofa for two with apple green pillows, coffee table, funky rug, standing lamp, and decorative candles.  Isn't is just fun?

*We also got seat covers for the chairs we already had.  It makes a big difference.

*We are still fine tuning the kitchen area (including attaching the other two legs of the table).  We now have a better surface on which to prepare our meals. 

It's a happy thing to see how this all came together.  The process for getting everything was nuts.  We left for Ikea around 1:30 in the afternoon.  We had to change buses downtown; we got there sometime after 2pm.  And then we shopped, and shopped, and shopped....and that was just the first level.  We finally completed selecting what we wanted by 5:30pm.  From there we were going to try to rent a van to drive everything home, unload, and get back as quickly as possible.  Well, all the vans were out and the employees said that they weren't expecting one back until 8:30pm.  Yikes!  We knew the buses stopped running out there at 8pm so we didn't really know what we'd do.  Kyle explained to the employee that we wouldn't be able to get home after bringing back the van.  That's when Kevin (the employee) offered to drive Kyle home when he brought back the van.  Relieved, we ventured upstairs to the Ikea cafeteria to enjoy a hearty meal of Swedish meatballs and french fries.  Apparently it was family night; there were children everywhere with their faces painted like Spiderman and fairies.  It was completely surprising to find the Ikea dining hall is the place to be on Friday nights.  ALSO, there is a fountain machine for free soda refills!!!!  It is generic Swedish cola, but still tasty and still FREE REFILLS.  We headed back downstairs, were able to get our truck, load it up, and navigate our way home in the dark.  One of our friends, Bilal, helped us unload everything and tote it to our room while Kyle drove the truck back to Ikea quickly before they closed.

Kyle & Kevin (the Ikea employee) became fast friends.  Kevin is a university student studying economics.  They just talked a lot.  Kyle makes friends so easily that it's just nuts.  We meet nice people everywhere we go.  Bilal says French people are nice.  I said that I was surprised because I had a very different impression from my time in Lyon.  Bilal smiled and said of course French people don't seem nice; people in Lyon aren't nice.  (except Hien).   

In other news, this past week has been very good.  I visited one of my schools and arranged my schedule to be only on Mondays & Thursdays.  I found out that I'll be working with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.  I'm praying that God guides me in my instruction for little ones. 

Kyle & I have spent more time with his classmates.  We went to a cook out for Supelec (Kyle's school) on Tuesday and just talked to folks for a long time.  It was my first time meeting a lot of them.  On Thursday night we cooked dinner with a bunch of folks in their hall kitchen; it's like they are a big family because the school is small.  By the time they get to their last year of college, they all know each other really well.  Yesterday we ate at the dining hall with all his classmates; it was really hard to keep up with folks talking in the dining room because it was so noisy.  Last night, one friend helped us tote all our Ikea belongings to our room.  Then we watched something on t.v. in their dorms like French Survivor.  Then we went to a rock'n'roll party in big common room.  Everybody swing dances to rock music here~it's nuts!  I believe Kyle & I will attend the classes to learn how to dance before I hit the rock party scene again.

Well well...it seems I've written enough....