Once Around the Block

Europe » France » Aquitaine » Pau
December 2nd 2007

Published: December 2nd 2007

So, all I’ve been hearing around here for the past month is how the Fac (or university, if you will) is “bloquée”, which means blocked. I assumed it was a figure of speech—a way of saying that the students and the government were at an impasse, too deadlocked to work things out.

This is France…I should have known better.

If I’ve been a bad blogger recently, it’s because in addition to prepping for and teaching classes, I’ve been trying to cram obscure English words and math formulas I haven’t used in 3 years into my head so that I could go and take the GRE in Toulouse this Friday. This is where the “blockage” comes in. Patrick kindly took me to the train station at 8 o’clock so I could get to Toulouse for my 12:30 exam. Luckily, the transportation strike was over as of last week, so the trains were running again. I’d been to Toulouse 2 years ago, so I wasn’t too worried about finding my way around. Still, I made sure to catch a train that would get me there in plenty of time. I took the metro to Paul Sabatier university, and then tried to find the building where the exam was scheduled to be. I finally asked a student where it was, and he pointed it out to me with an apologetic shrug and announced “mais, c’est bloquée. » (but, it’s blocked). Turns out it’s not just a figure of speech, as there were tables and chairs piled up against every doorway and black paper over some of the windows, along with various posters denouncing the proposed law to privatize the university system. Panicked that my registration fee is being forfeited before my very eyes, I follow the guy’s directions to the secretariat, hoping there will be someone there to help me. They didn’t have a clue what was going on. I make one final tour around the building before accepting that the exam must have been cancelled. Then, just as I’m walking away, I notice a little paper taped up in the window. It says that if you’re there for the GRE, to ring the bell to be let in. I’m saved! So I ring and wait about 5 minutes for the nice test administrator to come and get me. She’d worked out a deal with the students so that the exam could still take place.

So now the dreaded GRE is out of my way and all that’s left are the dreaded applications. I just mailed off UVA’s the other day, so I’ve only got Emory, Duke, and Vanderbilt left to go. After the exam finished, I still had a few hours before I had to catch my train back to Pau. I took the metro to the center of town, where there’s the Place Capitole, some pretty parks, lots of beautiful pink marble buildling (they don’t call it La Ville Rose for nothing!), and of course, shopping! I should have taken pictures, but I just wasn’t feeling the effort after a 4 hour exam, so you’ll just have to glean what you can from my stunning and eloquent verbal descriptions ;-) Toulouse is already decked out for Noel. There are lights strung up along all the streets, and the trees in the parks are draped with tinsel. There are also vendors selling roasted chestnuts, and a beautiful old fashioned carousel that I’m sure is there whether it’s Christmas or not. Still, the lights made it seem festive.

I popped into Gallaries Laffayette, which is one of the French “grand magasins”, or departments stores. Think Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s. Their Christmas displays were absolutely gorgeous. One was set up like this old Victorian parlor all decked out for the season. Later that night, I caught my train back to Pau where Patrick once again was nice enough to come and fetch me from the station, and the whole family celebrated the end of my exam stress with the black forest cake that his aunt had made him. For those of you that don’t know, this is a chocolate cake with cherries soaked in kirch liquor and a whipped cream frosting…also known as heaven.

Backing up to earlier in the week, Helen and Charlene and I did go and see the Princess Bride last Saturday. They both really enjoyed it, and Helen declared Cary Elwes to be exceptionally “fit”, which is Brit-slang for hot. Then Charlene went to dinner at a friends house and Helen and I walked down to the foot of the chateau for an evening of fun and games with the Spanish language assistants and their French roommates. As always, the apartment felt sounded like the tower of babble had collapsed inside it, with everyone lapsing between Spanish, German, French, English, and Italian. At Mathieu’s insistence, we played a game where everyone writes well-known figures (meaning well known to people of ALL cultures present) on slips of paper and puts them in a basket. The game then proceeds in 3 rounds, once you decide what language to play in. The first time, you can use any words except the person’s name to make your teammates guess who’s on the paper you picked. The second round, you can only use two words. If you slip and say “umm” or “quoi” or “merde”, that counts as a word. The third time, you have to use pantomime, but at this point everyone is getting to know who’s on the slips, so it’s not as hard as it sounds. It’s a lot of fun, and sort of like an extreme taboo. I was shocked and horrified to discover that Buddy Holly is apparently not an internationally known personality, judging from the amount of swearing that ensued whenever his name came up.

For Sunday lunch, Christine made a “Poule au Pot”, which is apparently the official dish of Henri IV and thus of Pau. It’s a hen that is cooked in a big pot (go figure) with leeks, turnips, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. There’s also a stuffing made out of the liver and other things you’re better off not knowing about. We eat the bullion it was cooked in as an entrée, and Christine added homemade pasta to it. Then, the chicken and veggies are the main course. Later that afternoon, we went to the “Foire aux Livres”, or book fair, that was happening that weekend, which of course made me one very happy girl. There were lots of authors there signing their works. The French are absolutely crazy about their “bande desinee”, or comic books, and there was a whole section devoted to them. I found comic books of several of Moliere’s plays. I ended up buying a biography on Henri IV that I can’t put down. It’s very well written and absolutely hilarious.

Tuesday, I went and saw a film at le Melies that was part of their African cinema series. It was called Africa Paradis, and takes place in the future, where a unified Africa has become the world’s leading economic power and Europe has collapsed into a third world country. Hundreds of thousands of European immigrants are quitting their countries to come and work in Africa. The story centers around a young French couple that tries to cross the border illegally. It’s by a Senegalaise director, and while I thought it was interesting, I thought there was room for improvement as well. I thought it glossed over a lot of deeper issues with blunt stereotypes, and that its attempts at satire were often misdirected.

Thursday was a full day at Clermont. The 6emes that I have in the morning are so cute. They’re so proud of themselves every time they get something right, since they’re just learning English. We did a lesson about major US cities, and then I gave them a word search with the 50 states. I can now put word searches right next to hangman on my list of “never fail” activities. The kids were absolutely crazy for it, and they didn’t even want to stop working when the bell rang. My 4eme girls were so sweet they almost made me cry. They asked me if I would be going to England with them when they take their school trip in June. I told them that no, I’d be going back to the United States at the end of April. They got all upset and said “but do you have to? Can’t you change your flight? We want you to come!” and Jeanne demanded “et nous, on fait quoi le jeudi matin?” (and what are we going to do on Thursday mornings?). I tried to teach my 3emes about the Harlem Renaissance, since it’s one of my favorite subjects, but I think it may have been a bit much for them. Still, I gave them a copy of Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B”, and we worked through it together. Those that managed to get it did seem really interested, to be fair. They’re learning about New York right now, so I thought this would be a good tie in. Still, as Laurence Chapelle told me “better to aim too high and challenge them than to aim too low”. This week I’m planning to give them a break and do a lesson on comic strips.

So there you have it; a picture free, but hopefully still mildly entertaining update. A bientot!

Once Around the Block

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