Oh my gosh, I forgot to mention...

Today on our school tour, we saw an interesting relic of a saint: his hand. Yeah, there was literally a hand in a glass container on a shelf in the wall surrounding the altar. It's pretty much disgusting.

J'ai vais une carie

When I arrived in France on Saturday, I noticed the beginnings of some tooth pain. Of course, being that I was in another country, I was going to try to suck it up; grin and bear it; shake it off. But, it kept me awake for two nights. After about 50 Advil, this morning I realized it was an unspeakable pain. Also, I noticed a knot in the roof of my mouth. I thought to myself, "This is not good!" So Caroline and Michele got me an appointment with a French dentist. After several hours of pain, I finally had official word: a cavity had grown under a previous filling and was pressing on my nerve. Within 10 minutes, the dentist had drilled the decay and repacked my tooth with a temporary filling. Going to a French dentist was different than my experiences at American dentists. First off, there were only two people in the whole office--the dentist and his assistant. Second, the building was this amazing historic house and his office was in the one room where he had his dentist supplies, chair, x-ray machine, etc... Even better, it didn't cost me a dime to go. I missed the boat tour that the students took today while I was taking care of my periodontal crisis. I did pick back up when we did our tour of the cathedral and of petite france. We ended the day with a cup of cafe au lait at an outside cafe. Did you know that in a French school's cafeteria, the teachers are served wine with their lunches??

A Day of Respite

Today was a low key day. I didn't even get out of my pjs until 1pm--jet lag can be deadly. We walked around a park with a zoo in it. We ate some ice cream. I almost got run over by a crazy Frenchman. C'est la vie.

France, take two

So I'm back again, but this time I have 30 students and 4 other adults. There's nothing to stop your heart quite like getting 30 students through luggage check, security check and boarded on a plane. Even more is when one of the students can't find a passport when you're about to go through customs in Frankfurt. It's very difficult to communicate with German security officials when you only speak English and a little bit of French. Let's just say "Dankeschön" goes a long way. Disaster averted, all is good--the passport was located on the airplane. Everyone made it to France in one piece, though amazingly exhausted. It was tremendous to finally see this part of a global vision come to fruition. The battle to make this happen was uphill all of the way; there were times when my fellow chaperons and I would look at each other and wonder exactly what we had gotten ourselves into. Luckily I had a group of colleagues who believed as strongly as I do that experiences such as these can permanently change a student. Many of our students on this exchange have not ever left the country; some have never even been on an airplane. How much is it going to rock their world to see the Mona Lisa, the Eiffel Tower, different power outlets, and eat fromage blanc? So our sixteen day journey begins--A la vôtre!

Bon Voyage

Today is my last official broadcast from France. I got to do my bike tour today. And I almost can navigate the Paris subway system--though having 2 suitcases and a backpack while traversing it is none too fun! I'm actually about to pack it in for the night--my flight is early tomorrow morning--so I will leave you some images of magical Paris.

French people sell wine boxes instead of juice boxes.

Today is my last broadcast from Strasbourg. I'm leaving on a train early tomorrow morning to spend a day in Paris, then I fly out of Paris Saturday morning. I'm hoping that I will be able to do a bike tour of the city before I leave. Today, I went on one last tour through a botanical garden here, I walked the streets of downtown one last time and the family I'm staying with had a cook out--the three teachers that will come to Wilmington were all there. When I was in town today, I went into a grocery store and was quite amused to see that the wine comes in boxes just like the juice in America. I guess here for lunch you pack a wine box rather than a juice box. Also note the size of the car--this golf-cart-size car is relatively common here in Europe. The car is similar to the car I used for my Barbies as a young lass. But they get pretty good gas mileage and parking is never a problem because it can fit in a phone booth if necessary. Strasbourg has been amazing and the people have been welcoming and very generous. I have loved my time here and I am very excited for the group to come in October!

Yesterday's pictures.

Here are the pics of Germany. You'll notice the construction looks brand new compared to the French pictures. That's because this particular town was pretty much entirely destroyed during World War II, so it's "only" just been built. Germany is much cheaper than France, I noticed. Also, Germany just won a semi-final game in the European cup last night--so everyone's waving their German flags.

wow!

I went to Germany today and did a little shopping and eating of German desserts. I also went to another Rotary dinner. But the most exciting place I have to go right now is my bed. A bientot!

Margot l'escargot.

So today I tried escargot for the first time ever. The texture was slightly troubling--initially I thought it would be more on the slimy side, but it turns out that it's more chewy and rubber band-like. I went to Jardin de L'orangerie--the famed gardens of Empress Josephine and home to about one million storks. It was beautiful and full of flowers. Also they have a zoo. I received several lessons in biology watching the animals. We also saw the building where the Council of Europe meets (not the same as the European Union) and the European Parliament. After this, I went with Michele to her aerobics class (she is the instructor). The whole time she kept asking me if I wanted to go to her gymnastics class. She said I could participate with her students if I wanted and afterward they were having a cookout because it was their last class for the summer. I was thinking the whole time: I can't possibly do gymnastics. Once 30 set in, my body stopped working the way it is supposed to. I envisioned myself dying from falling off the balance beam or hitting my head as I tried to vault or decapitating myself on the uneven bars. It wasn't until we were leaving that I finally realized she meant an aerobics class. That I could handle--except it was taught in French. This made things interesting. But, nonetheless, I worked up a sweat to the Beach Boy music that she played whilst I did my lunges and squats. Probably the sweat was due more to the lack of air conditioning than to the amount of effort I was exerting. Well, it's about time for me to enter the deep slumber that comes after a weary day--au revoir.

Je suis fatigue!

Today I bought cheesy tourist items to make a display at Murray representing Strasbourg. Then I went on a school field trip to a bowling alley. It's pretty evident when you watch 11 and 12 year olds in France bowl that the sport is an import. Being that it was standardized in New York near the 1900s, it's probably one of the only things France imports from America aside from soda and McDonalds--bowling balls. Also, the language of "strike" and "spare" and "pin" are all English (not having a French translation). You could hear the clump of balls being dropped at about shoulder height as opposed to the distinct sound of a ball rolling as it is set down properly. The average score amongst the group was about 40. But these students had a blast and so did I. I especially enjoyed the Velcro of the French bowling shoes instead of the laces I'm accustomed to, and though my score was not what it should have been, I was able to beat another teacher. Then Michele had me teach her "English" P.E. class (that is, a P.E. class that is taught in all English to more advanced 7th graders). I played a typical French game--Hares and Hunter with them, and then taught them a game from my American camp counselor days--Pin Dodge. Several students received fat lips under my care as they played this version of dodge ball. Luckily I didn't get kicked out of the country. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I was transported to school via Michele's scooter. That was a pretty fun ride to drive through the streets of Strasbourg on a scooter. Lastly, one of the student's mothers owns a Brazilian restaurant--so tonight for dinner I ate Brazilian food in France. It was pretty much delicious. I'm worried that my clothes are soon to become too small for me if I stay in France much longer.