November Update

The month of November hasn't been super exciting because I've mostly just been working. Time goes by very quickly when you are just living your daily life. I am still enjoying teaching English. I taught some of my classes about Halloween since it isn't really a big thing here in France.
While I was on break, one of my teachers asked if I would want to/be able to tutor her son in English and I agreed to, so every Saturday morning I take the bus to Angoulins (a suburb of La Rochelle) to my teacher's house and help her son with his English homework. We work on reading and translating texts, which can be difficult at times because I try to explain a word or concept in English terms that he might know, but if that doesn't work and I know the word in French then I will just tell him in French, or if I don't know the word in French then he will just look it up. After two hours of working, I stay for lunch and have a really good home cooked meal with the family. It is nice talking with the family and getting to experience the French daily life.

Saturday, November 7
The first Saturday that I went to help my teacher's son (Corentin is his name) I went to Châtelaillon Plage after. Thea met me on the bus from La Rochelle to Châtelaillon since it stops in Angoulins and we walked on the beach the rest of the afternoon. It was beautiful and warm out! I couldn't believe it was November and in the 60s!

 First we got a coffee at this cute café that had tables right out on the beach!

There were some really pretty houses right along the beach! I could only image what it would be like to live here; it's so beautiful!

The sand was a little cold on my bare feet, but it was so beautiful that I couldn't complain.

We stayed until the sun started to set, but we couldn't watch it completely set because we had to catch the bus back to La Rochelle.

Monday, November 16
Instead of going to school today, I had to go to an orientation day with the primary assistants in Saintes. I took the train with a few other assistants in the morning, and it was only about an hour long ride. We started with talking about how each of our schools are going and what we have done with the classes. Then Sylvie gave us some more ideas of what we can do with the students. We had about an hour long lunch break so I walked around Saintes a little bit with the other assistants, and most of the had bought lunch but I brought a lunch, so we ate in a park by the river. Here are a few pictures that I took:

Interestingly enough, Saintes had many of these red telephone booths! I don't know why, but I don't think they worked.

I thought this was a pretty bridge with all of the flowers :)

Saintes (and something else that I couldn't read) 

Friday, November 20

HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY to me!!! Sadly it wasn't the best birthday ever :( because I had to work since I missed school on Monday. It was a cold, very windy, and rainy day. I worked my normal hours until lunch time and then the schedule changes in the afternoons on Fridays. Instead of lunch ending at 1:45pm, it ended at 2:30pm so I had to wait until then to go to my CP class and work with them for half an hour. Then they had recess at 3:15pm so I waited from 3-3:30pm to go to my last class (but they never end recess on time so it was more like 3:40), and I didn't leave school until 4:15pm. Then I waited in the rain for the bus, and a woman I had seen at the school came to the bus stop and said hello. Apparently she is some sort of substitute teacher, and she speaks fluent English because she had lived in London for 20 or so years (she's about 60 years old). We sat on the bus together, and she told me all about her life and she asked me some things. It was a nice talking with her. I didn't get home until 5pm. When I got home, things started to look up! Gabby (my roommate) said she was making me dinner and a chocolate cake, and that our friends Thea and Melissa were coming over for dinner too! I talked to my grandparents through FaceTime for a while, and I had several nice messages on Facebook from friends and family back home wishing me a happy birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent me a message or a birthday card! I felt so loved on my birthday :)

Tuesday, November 24
Happy Birthday Grandma! Not much to talk about for today, but when I opened my shutters in the morning before leaving for school, this is what I saw:

A beautiful sunrise!!

Thursday, November 26
Happy Thanksgiving! Today after school my roommates and I hosted a small Thanksgiving dinner for a few of our friends. It was a really nice evening talking with friends and eating delicious food. Since turkey is hard to find in France (at least when it's not Christmas), we just had rotisserie chicken, which was delicious. We had many of the other typical dishes: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie.

Our dinner party :)

Friday, November 27

Today I went to le Jardin des Plantes, which is just a little park close to my house. I went during the lunch hour and it is across the street from a high school so of course the park was full of high school students eating lunch and smoking (typical French). I just sat on a bench and read. It was a little chilly out but it was sunny so that made up for it. After 2pm everyone was gone so I walked around the park and took some pictures:

Walking around Le Jardin des Plantes

An interesting fountain sculpture in le Jardin des Plantes

Despite it being the end of November, there are still some pretty flowers

I can't resist taking pictures of beautiful flowers :)

I really like this little path in le Jardin des Plantes, and I can't wait to see it in the spring when there are more flowers in bloom!

Me :)

Then I went into the le Muséum (which is weird because the French have the word Musée for museum so I don't know why it's called muséum) d'Histoire Naturelle. I went because it's right on the edge of the park and since I live so close I feel like I have to go or people would ask why I never went. Anyway, I couldn't take pictures, which was find with me because it was super creepy!! There was a LOT of taxidermy of all types of animals—all birds, fish, four legged mammals, etc. I felt like I was being watched. It was just as bad (if not worse than) as the wax museums I've been in. I was the only person in there at first which was weird and the floors would squeak and I would jump. I felt like the movie Night in the Museum and all of the animals were going to come alive and attack me! Crazy, I know but that's just how I felt. There were four floors and and two of them were full of taxidermy. The top two floors had a lot of cool and interesting artifacts from all over Africa, the Americas, and random islands. But I couldn't enjoy it after all of the animals. 

There were two groups of people there with me: one was a group of people filming things (I have no idea what for or why) and the other group was a group of an older person art class. 

I didn't particularly enjoy that museum, but I would probably go back if someone asked me to go with them. I just wouldn't want to do it by myself again.

Saturday, November 28
Today I had a second Thanksgiving dinner at some other assistants' house (Kayla, Camille, and Ruth, who are all primary assistants in La Rochelle). It was a fun evening of eating, saying what we are thankful for, and sharing our holiday with foreigners (2 English, 1 Scottish, 1 Irish, 1 Australian, 1 German, and 1 French). Just as any other Thanksgiving we were all stuffed by the end! But everyone enjoyed it whether it was their first time or they've been doing it all their lives (like me :). Here are a few pictures from that night:

Starting to eat

They had two tables

The whole group! Such a fun time :)

I know this post is pretty short, but that's how I feel November went: fast. I can't believe the month of November is already over! Time is going by way to quickly! But I know I still have many more adventures coming, and I can't wait to share them with you!