Sign Language

I had an interesting encounter on the bus today, when I noticed two people sitting behind me signing.  Now, contrary to popular belief, sign language is not universal: American Sign Language, which I took for four years in college, is only used in the U.S. and Canada.  So I figured that these people were probably using French Sign Language-- and they were, I came to find out, when I interjected.  Thankfully, ASL is a direct descendant of French Sign Language, meaning they have more in common than say, ASL and British Sign Language.  Still, even the manual alphabets differ.  Nonetheless, I was able to introduce myself, tell them that I was American, learn their names, that they were both deaf, mother and son, etc.

When I sign I unconsciously mouth the words, from the habit of speaking and to help myself be understood.  But it was funny-- I found myself mouthing the words to these people, but it not helping at all-- because I was mouthing in English when I should've been mouthing in French! It probably made it even more confusing for these nice people.  It was like a 4-way language jumble: English, French, ASL, and FSL, all criss-crossing each other.  It was fun though-- my first conversation with deaf French people-- and it made me want to sign again!

*On a related note, when I speak French and am trying to be understood, I often throw in sign language unconsciously, as if that would somehow make it obvious.  It doesn't, of course, since none of my listeners know ASL; it probably just looks like bizarre miming.

A Walk in the Country

It snowed this Saturday!  I woke up and there were big flakes coming down, which I wasn't expecting at all.  It continued for close to an hour, but nothing stuck.  It warmed up enough that afternoon for a country walk with Francoise and Lucien, the French couple that I stayed with my first week in France.  I enjoy their company because I learn more French in two hours with them than I do all other days combined.  They're great about explaining interesting things or telling me what things are called; Francoise takes English classes and likes to practice with me, so it's a two-way vocab-exchange.

20 minutes outside of Toulouse, you find yourself in the typical landscape of the Lauragais region: rolling hills and fields:

We passed a llama farm:

The best part = the view: on certain days we can see the Pyrenees, a whole range of snowy mountains 80 miles away, but that look so much closer.  My camera can't capture it; you can barely see them in this picture, but in real life they were magnificent.

Last month I posted a link to a video of another outting with Francoise and Lucien, when we stayed in a rural village, at Francoise's mother's house.  I don't know if the link worked so here's the video again, if you missed it.  It was a hike in the Pyrenees:

Thankful for France and Fluency (and Friends.. And Food!)

All week I had been looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night and in no way was I disappointed.  It was as delicious and festive as any Thanksgiving in America-- two long tables, beautiful centerpieces, hot cider, a fire pit, and more food than we could eat.  The only thing missing was my family :(  but it was good company nonetheless.

I was one of a dozen Americans (the hosts were American, so they got all the dishes and traditions right!).  There were about 50 people my age and we counted 21 nationalities!  I sat next to people from Greece, Colombia, China, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Tajikistan, and it goes on.. (most were international students)... "Where are you from?" was the perfunctory second question in any introduction.  And how nice that English was the language of choice!  Fluency (and the power of language!) is often taken for granted.  To be one of the fluent again was to regain the power to be charming, witty, polite, and intelligent...Words can make you whatever you want to be, when you know how to use them.

Rendez-vous like this also boost my French self-esteem.  When I'm constantly surrounded by Frenchmen, and I misunderstand simple questions, or lack the vocabulary to make a simple point, it's sometimes discouraging.  I feel like I should be learning quicker and picking it up more easily, but when I'm with non-native French people or foreigners like myself, my French sounds darn good compared to some.  I've even gotten a couple compliments on it, having only been here two months. 

So, I was happy when I left the party at midnight, with a plate of leftovers and a healthy ego, after an evening of cheerful conversation. Just wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm celebrating by teaching my students all about Thanksgiving and probably by whipping up some special foods myself.  I'm attending a big Thanksgiving gathering on Friday night-- really looking forward to it, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Today I shopped at the cheapest market in the city!  Look at all of the produce I got!:

Oranges, apples, tomatoes, bananas, cauliflower, three zucchinis, some shallots, celery, two grapefruits, a slice of pumpkin, a big spaghetti squash, and three "kaki-pommes" (persimmon, a tropical fruit that looks like an orange tomato but is deliciously sweet)... all of this for only 10 euros!!

I went to a chocolate exposition over the weekend.. lots and lots of chocolate. In all shapes and sizes. A chocolate fountain.  A fair amount of free samples.  I've never liked chocolate, but I'm slowing acquiring the taste..

As for my own cooking, I've recently made: Emincé de Volaille sauce Roquefort, which is chicken in a creamy Roquefort sauce (Roquefort being a sheep milk bleu cheese with a unique flavor), with sauteed potatoes; spaetzle with knepfla de porc foie (German! not French); homemade applesauce; and different variations of sauteed vegetables, pasta, rice, homemade spaghetti sauce.  I have a feeling I'm going to experiment with some new delicious food tomorrow...

Sunday Lunch

If you ever get invited to eat with French people, expect to stay for a long time.  This Sunday a couple invited me and others over for a quick lunch after church-- I didn't get home til 6pm!  Not that I care, I happen to be incredibly rich in spare time.  It simply seems that no one is in any rush.

First, a vegetable soup-- puree style, not chunky, made in a pressure cooker, which seems to be common in France.  Finished. Then the main course needs more time/preparation so 15 minutes later that comes out.  Roasted pork and potatoes in a Dijon mustard sauce and a side of vegetables. White wine.  How does a young couple with a baby and a toddler invite people over *spur of the moment* and just so happen to have enough food for 5 people?  And in the oven during church so that it's ready afterward? Odd.

Several minutes later, an endive salad (also popular in France).  I've noticed a strange thing: they rarely use cutting boards.  I've seen more than one French person make a salad (cutting endives, or onions, or garlic, whatever) by holding it in their hands when I would've whipped out a cutting board for convenience.  They also customarily don't use store-bought salad dressing.  Everyone seems to have his or her own way of combining olive oil, vinegar, mustard, etc, into a dressing.

Then le fromage.  I watched as they brought out their cheese board with five different kinds of cheese on it and asked their 2-year-old which one she wanted.  Only in France.... Then dessert.  An assortment of a fancy little store-bought cake, ice cream, fresh fruit, apple sauce, rum-soaked cherries... When you think about "eating in courses," you often think about feasts or fancy dinners, but I've found that it's just a slow-paced way to eat a relatively normal amount of ordinary (to the French at least) food.  And it's their way of life; they probably think nothing of it.

Oh, and that whole procession was followed by coffee and tea and another hour of chit-chat.  That was my Sunday!

An Evanescent Paradise

Take a look at this chart... It shows the average years spent in retirement... the recent French strike protested the increase in the retirement age, from 60 to 62, but we see that the French can expect more retirement time than most people.  Notice also that France is second in terms of government spending on pensions:

Granted, the French aren't really protesting a decrease in their retirement years-  the youth are concerned that if people don't retire, new jobs won't open up, and the high unemployment will be perpetuated...  You can also see the U.S. there on the bottom.  For people age 55-64, only 38% of Frenchmen are working, while 62% of Americans of the same age are still kickin' it.  But retirement is only one example of the gulf between Europe and the U.S.: the whole approach to life, money, and work is different.

"It is time to stop pretending," writes Robert Kagan, "that Europeans and Americans share a common view of the world."...  For example, "as tourists throng the streets and summer temperatures hit their peak, Paris’ most popular ice-cream parlor is closed for a whole six weeks" while the owners take their vacation.  Can you imagine?  To any American businessman this is total idiocy!

"The average American produces 43% more than the average Frenchman... citizens of America's poorest state, Mississippi, have a higher GDP than Italians; and Alabamans beat the Germans, French and Belgians...  Why?  In productivity, or output per hour, Americans have only a tiny edge over Europeans, but the average American works 400 more hours per year than a German and 300 hours more than a Frenchman."

But before you go begrudging them their 2 months vacation, 35-hr max work week, and dozen public holidays, consider the cost of putting pleasure before profit:

-- just because they have a vacation, doesn't mean they have the money to take advantage of it.  The increased leisure time in France correlates to more time spent in front of the TV, not on the Riviera. 

--the infrastructure of less work/more leisure can't support itself.  Other European countries have turned the tide and are cutting their leisurely benefits.  However, no French politician is going to try to take away what the French now view as entitlement.. It's a downhill train. 
 

I hope you don't mind the didactic post today.  I was even tempted to craft it into a college-worthy essay to make it more coherent for you, but there are lots of interesting articles on the subject, so why re-do what others have already been done so well?  Here is one that links the decline of work in Northern Europe to the decline in religion, (the "secularized sloth" has "finally slain the Protestant work ethic.."):

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/weekinreview/the-world-why-america-outpaces-europe-clue-the-god-factor.html?pagewanted=3

I'll leave you with this:

 "Europeans have traded leisure for wealth.  The only problem with this formula is that Europe has tried to have its gâteau and eat it too.  Creating wealth, if only to redistribute it, ultimately requires hard work.  But Europe's welfare state, and its incentives for leisure have continued to grow. (Never mind that America has subsidized Europe's domestic benefits for decades by bearing the lion's share of its defense costs).  Europe [is portrayed] as warmer, fuzzier, fairer, more intellectual, more healthy and less stressful than America.  Perhaps so.  But if Europe is a paradise, it is an evanescent one."

La Grève

Perhaps you've heard about the strike in France, depending on how up you are on the news.  Well, the strike, or "la grève," is dissipating.  It was going full force in October, but I didn't see any marches or torch-throwing crowds.. Most of those demonstrations took place in Paris.  I was affected by the strike a few times when I couldn't get to work because the buses and metro weren't running--a real inconvenience that left a lot of people standing at the stations... The other most obvious indicator was the trash.  Apparently the trash guys were in on the strike because nothing was picked up for a couple weeks and the trash began to accumulate on the corners and sidewalks.  I saw it in Sète and in Toulouse.  It's been picked up now, though.  Here's a picture of the trash in Marseilles, where it was the worst:

Whenever I mentioned the strike to anyone, the usual response was "Welcome to France, the country of strikes."  They've been striking ever since the Revolution, they say.  This particular strike was over the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62, and over the economy and high unemployment. But, it didn't work!  It just cost the country billions of dollars... The President signed the new law into action anyways.

High School

My class of nine sophomore boys left us laughing today-- they're all friends, so they constantly crack jokes at each other, which I don't mind as long as they explain it to me in English, which most can do quite intelligibly.  They're much more willing to talk than my other classes, where it's like pulling teeth to get the students to elaborate on a question or subject.

CRAZY DIFFERENCES IN FRENCH HIGH SCHOOLS:

- Extracurricular activities DO NOT EXIST: there are no school sport teams, no clubs of any kind.  It's true all over France.. Schools are soley academic. Some of the kids play sports at unaffiliated clubs, but only practice at most three evenings/week.  No two-a-days like in Texas.  No missing class for an away game.  No school rivalries.

-not-so-crazy, but still a difference: The students travel around as a class; for example, my group of nine boys also has science, math, french, etc, together.  This is true in American middle schools for the most part, but in my high school every student had a unique schedule...

-School doesn't end until 6pm! They're in school from 8-6!  Such a long day.  It's practically getting dark by the time they're getting home.  This being the case, they don't eat dinner until 8 or 9 pm, which is common among the French.  They might make up for the long hours with longer holidays, but I think I'd opt for getting out at 4:00 everyday instead of a few extra days of vacation.

Writing this made me hungry...

How anyone in France can not be passionate about food, I just don't know.  Especially the south of France-- it's the country's gastronomical heart!  This is where the wine and cheese and truffles come from! This is where eating duck is more common than eating chicken, where there are top-class chefs in the restaurants creating filet mignon aux oignons, Rognons au de Veau flambés au Madère (veal), pate du lapin (rabbit), and so much more!... With all the farms in this region, you can get the freshest of everything.  That's why French people shop at farmer's markets regularly: because they know that in order to make the most delicious food, you need to use the finest ingredients.

Maybe the French give off a passionate vibe about food just in the way they approach it.  They put time into it: lots of famous French dishes take hours in the oven and meticulous care.  The French also take time eating it: in courses.  They drink the right wines with the right foods, serve the right kind of cheese... Of course, it's not everyone, and it's not everyday. There's fast food and microwave meals and of course families don't linger over wine and cheese every night, but as a whole, the French seem to take a lot of pride in their food.

It's doubly enticing because there are so many things that I've never tried, things that I've never even heard of... Like all the little treats in the boulangeries:

And presentation is everything, everything laid out so nicely... some of the desserts are so exquisite that I wouldn't want to eat them.

Even some of the stores themselves are beautiful, like this one.  It was a biscuiterie in Sete with ornate walls and mirrors and rows and rows of Madeleines.

 

Now, I like to cook under normal circumstances.. and being surrounded by these titilating foods makes me want to become the next Julia Child even more.  I don't have an oven, so my options are limited-- I won't be making any quiche lorraine, flan, or tartes. But plenty can be done stovetop.  I've only just begun...  I made crepes!  Yes, it is possible to make crepes without a measuring cup, whisk, or crepe grill... And they are SO versatile! They can go in so many directions! Savory: meat or veggies or cheese. Sweet: sugar, fruit, jelly... I tried a cheese one: two kinds, Roquefort and Camembert, melted. Really good. Another I tried with tomato, cheese, and herbs.  And for my dessert crepe I sauteed a pear in white wine and cinnamon.  SO many things still to be tried...

Naked Men

My first week in Toulouse, I met some of the other language assistants at a cafe where we had some free entertainment!  There was a group of college students doing some sort of challenge/relay race.  It had to be fraternity/sorority hazing... they were running around half-dressed (or not dressed), stopping traffic, doing lewd gestures on the hoods of people's cars... the grand finale was the boys streaking around the square. Naked men in the streets-- welcome to France!!

A not-so-successful trip to Lourdes

I had a couple days off of work so, not wanting to waste them, I got the idea to go to Lourdes, an hour and a half train ride away. The first thing I noticed was le Chateau Fort, a castle that was used by the Romans and beseiged by Charlemagne back in 778.  Today it's a museum, so I visited.  Interesting, and since it was a rainy day in the off-season, I was practically the only person there.

Lourdes is the Catholic Mecca of the world.  Over 5 million people travel there every year to see and pray in la grotte, the cave in which Saint Bernadette is said to have seen 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary.  There's also an underground basilica, museums galore, and a spring whose water is believed to have healing power-- I saw people filling up jugs from it to take home.  Above the cave is this impressive cathedral, with beautiful mosaics inside:

What I liked about Lourdes: the cathedral, all the candles lit in prayer by the pilgrims, the landscape-- surrounded by the Pyrenees.

What I didn't like about Lourdes:  It's incredibly commercial, everything catering to the tourists.  All it really consists of is the main Catholic attractions, hundreds of hotels, and a zillion shops selling cheap souvenirs-- rosary beads and statuettes of the Virgin in every conceivable form.  Most of these businesses are only open in the summer, creating lots of boarded up, empty streets in November.

That's not why my trip was "not-so-successful," though.  I was planning on staying for the night and doing a nearby hike the next day.  I booked a hostel online before going, but when I got there, it was completely dark.  Nobody at the reception desk, nobody anywhere, no answer on the phone-- it was only 6pm.  I'm guessing they're only open in the summer and the website forgot that small detail.. either that or it's just a really sucky hostel.  I decided to leave, not sift through the hundreds of hotels for a cheap one.  I'd seen enough of Lourdes anyways.  I went straight to la gare and caught the first train back to Toulouse, having been in Lourdes only 5 hours. Oh well! No harm done (as long as I get my hostel $ back).

Teaching

I teach at three different schools: a middle school, a high school, and a center for students with disabilities.  Each is different:

-In the middle school, I get groups of students in rapid succession, 10 minutes/10 students.  The teachers give me the topic to discuss, so all I have to do is repeat the lesson over and over again (very slowly and clearly), and try to get the students to say a few words. Easy.

-For 2 hours per week I sit and talk with my most fluent student, Kevin.  This week he asked me if I owned any guns... so we chatted about Texas gun laws and capital punishment and the like...

-In a class of three, I can teach whatever I like-- the teacher gives me no guidance, though sometimes I wish he would. It often feels like I'm really teaching geography or social studies and English is just the means.  One week it's Halloween, another- vacation, another- Native Americans.

-My favorite class so far: eight senior boys at the handicapped school- they're attentive.  And their English is good enough that we can throw in some humor or talk about new movies, whatever.

-Another class of all boys!  High school sophomores. I've only met them once but they seem to be very interesting, intelligent people.  A couple have mothers that are English teachers, so they speak well.  And they seem to be friends with each other, whichmakes them more comfortable talking out loud and the classroom chemistry is better in general.

-I sat in an 8th grade class last week and listened to the teacher ream on the students for coming to class completely unprepared,  forgetting their homework (reminded me of some of my middle school classes).  One girl was so distressed that she ran out of the room sobbing (it was the school for disabilities, though, so breakdowns might be more common than usual?).

Food and Fellowship

Ever since my first Sunday here in France, I've attended a very small church; I heard about it through word of mouth.  I usually eat lunch at the pastor's house after the service, with other people, too... Honestly, the company and conversation gets a little stiff sometimes and I ask myself why I spend 3+ hours eating and listening to people discuss Darwin or metaphysics in French... but the food is good and, trying to save all my money for traveling, I take a free meal where I can get it...

Today, however, was a special communal church service; several churches from the Toulouse area worshipped together, followed by a potluck! (Evanglicals everywhere respect the importance of food in fellowship). There are lots of Asian Christians in the area, so there was a mass of Vietnamese people at this thing.  Consequently lots of the dishes were Asian: rice, soup, crabmeat, some cinnamon-y chicken.  And the French food- quiche, cheese, bread, apple tarts.. The only American dish was a bowl of potatoe salad-- I had to explain to somebody what it was!
 
One of the churches in attendance was an International Church whose services are in English-- for once I was surrounded not only by French-speakers!  Starting conversations with strangers is laughably easy when you share a common language amidst a foreign one... I ate with a student from Canada, another from Ohio, a German and an Indonesian and we had a jolly good time talking in English.  I haven't laughed so much since I've been here (jokes, puns, and wittisisms have trouble crossing the language barrier).  So as much as I like being exposed to French people and immersing myself in the French culture, when it comes to having a good time, sometimes you just have to stick to your own.  I'll be seeing them again!

Gunther!

 

For those of you who know Gunther and/or Delia, this is a sign about their ancestors!  This was posted at the bottom of a mountain in the Pyrénées.  It reads: "I am a dog--Pyrenees Mountain dog-- called 'Patou.'  I watch over the security of the flocks.  My role is to repulse all foreign presences from the animals that I protect.  Thank you for keeping your dog by your sides."

A few more photos..why not?

I carried my camera in the basket in the front of my bike for easy access.. Once I went over a crazy bump and the camera leapt out of the basket and landed a foot from the canal!  That would've been tragic...

Carcassonne

Philippe, whom I stayed with in Carcassonne, has never been to the United States, but his grandfather came from Texas and he still has relatives there.  So he served me my tea in a "Don't Mess With Texas" mug.

The Canal

Historical Tidbit: Thomas Jefferson took an 8-day cruise on the Canal du Midi in 1787.  He got ideas that were later used for the Erie Canal.

Béziers

Castelnaudary

"Life is adventure.  Travel is adventure with a different address."