Bush School France Trip 08

Paris Projects

2008-05-21T10:33:00.003+02:00

Over the past two weeks, we have all been feverishly working on our projects and all around just having a good time. In Paris.
Carly's project is interviewing people all around the city to get to know the Parisian culture. So far she has had 20 interviews. She had two at a mosque, and two people tried to convert her. She had a good spiritual discusison nonetheless. She has been having a great time with her homestay sister; they have grown very close over the past couple of weeks.
Rachel has seen 5 plays (all in French, what an intellectual), and has fullfilled the goals for her project. The plays areGarneir et SEntou, La Oiseau Vert (the play put on by the Ecole Alsacienne), a slapstick comedy show, Li, Leon, Louis and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew translated by Victor Hugo into French, which Tamara also saw. It was riveting.
Colin has been going to cool jazzy concerts. He has been to 5 so far, at the Bistro des Artists, Cafe Universal, Le Chat Noir, and one at a park. He thinks he is getting close to really understanding the spirit of music in Paris, which he knows sounds cheesy, but that's ok. Colin was playing marbles with his younger homestay brother, which turned into Colin getting beat up by a 12 year old. But it was his birthday so Colin totally let him do it. Colin also saw The Nanny Diaries (featuring Scarlett Johansson) which he says is "the #1 feel-good movie of the year!" Seriously.
Everyday, Joanna goes to a park, museum, and/or architectual structure and draws, writes, and/or paints with watercolors. She has been to the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Palais Royal, and the Louvre. She is a perfectionist with her art, which sometimes means sitting in the same place for three hours at a time and getting sunburned (on one side). She also now considers taking pictures "cheating". She went to her homestay family's vacation home near Fontainebleu, where she played tennis and played on a trampoline. She also visited Barbizon, a town which housed the workshops for many famous painters.
Rebecca has so far completed 7 paintings, visited the Centre Pomidou to study the work of Louise Bourgeois, visited the open air sculpture garden and Versailles. She has now fullfilled all of her dreams of the trip by visiting Versailles (and looking good). She spent 6 hours there alone, completely amused. She followed a tour given in Japanese by a French guide, took Myspace pictures in the Hall of Mirrors and bought an issue of French vogue.
Jack has been having a great time studying graffiti around the city. He visted an open house for artists in Belleville and talked to some artists. He also rented a book on graffiti from the library (all by himself), and went to a play featuring Spanish flamenco music. He also went to a jazz/hip-hop concert. He biked to our rendez-vous this morning. On a bike. It was cool.
Claire's project is going well; she has created an accordion book of poetry and sketches about Paris, but it has some design flaws. She has visited the Moliere monument, square St. Viviani, and the Jardin du Luxembourg, where she was distracted from sketching by a conversation about politics with a French man in french. She also went to London with Annie for two days, and is very excited to attend university there next year. She and Annie tried very hard to avoid offending anyone by talking in British accents, but it was hard.
Esme has been reading a lot of french philosophy. She saw Ionesco's the Bald Soprano at a tiny theater in the Latin quarter who has been putting on the same play for 50 years. She really enjoys her new homestay family- they are very intellectual and the father is a very good cook.
I have been working on my walking tour everyday, finding places to visit and bakeries to eat at. Which has been fun. I have done a lot of people-watching in the Jardin du Luxembourg and marvelling at how beautiful the people (and the gardens) are.
Sunday, as a group, we visited a street-arts festival in a park in the north of Paris. It was like walking into a dream. We saw an ecclectic brass band (which a 4 year old girl danced to for the whole spectacle), some pirates, and lots of slapstick comedy. It was a great experience, unique to Paris, and it was truly magnifique.

Emma

Paris, je t'aime...

2008-05-14T10:29:00.003+02:00

Hello once again from Paris, the City of Light! Certainly the infamous city lives up to its name at night, but also during the day. The sun has been shining a lot, and it's very very hot!

So what, exactly, have we been up to? Along with working on our projects, we've also been having a lot of fun with our homestay families. In the same format as the last homestay post, I'll report to all of you guys about what's been going on with our homestays, and what we've been doing.

Joanna's family was, for her first week, in Africa, so she was staying with the aunt of her homestay sister. However, they are now back. Joanna says they are very very nice and they brought her back a really beautiful necklace from Tanzania. I should know how pretty it is... I saw it yesterday! She, as well as myself and Emma, went to see the movie "What Happens in Vegas" although here it's called "Jackpot." Those of us who have seen it are giving it good reviews. She wants me to add that Napoleon's bedroom is leopard print... hmmm...

Carly's brother is currently playing in a professional volleyball tournament. She went bowling, and says that for once she was actually good at it. She says the bowling alley was more like a night club with a bowling alley in it. (For those of you who are dying to know, the French word for night club is "boite de nuit" or, literally translated, "night box" which I think is just great.) She says her sister really enjoys being with Carly and that she eats cake and brownies for breakfast. She also attended a party and met a bunch of French people.

Esme says she ate Chinese food for the first time in 2 months. This is exciting, but if only we could find some pho! She saw the Lion King at the theater and says it was impressive. She's been taking more nature walks with Carly, specifically one at Buttes Chaumont, a sprawling park that she says is similar to Seattle.

Jack attended a jazz concert in a bookstore, and said it was "really artsy." The band was an American band called The Cosmosamatics. He says the sax player was really funny and kept doing little jumps as he played. He also went to an antiques market with his brother.

Colin also attended a jazz concert. At a bar. He says it was unique because along with the band there was also a DJ scratching, which he says was really cool. Afterwards there was a sort of jam session that included a freestyling rapper, whom he says "looked like a Tommy Hilfiger model" and he couldn't tell if the guy was good at it or not, but he said it rhymed so he assumes the guy wasn't too awful. He then went to a party at the jazz pianist's house, where they asked him about his opinion on French girls.

Claire says she's finally got the opportunity to hang out with her otherwise busy family (we just had a long weekend and everyone had days off). She says she went grocery shopping at a local market with the family and says it was actually really fun. Her mother is a big fan of a parsley and pork pate, which is apparently a specialty of some region of France... unfortunately we don't know exactly what region. She saw a play called "Le Cul de Judas" which, translated, means, "Judas's Ass" and I don't mean "ass" as in "donkey"... It was a one-man show about a doctor who worked during the Angolan civil war. She says it was bizarre. She also went to see the school play called "L'Oiseau Vert" or "The Green Bird" which she says was very good. Her homestay brother was in it, as one half of a "shrieking arch."

Rebecca's mother joined a choir a year ago and says the mother practices all the time, which drives Rebecca's homestay siblings crazy. Rebecca won brownie points with her mother by saying the singing is not what bothers her, but rather her siblings telling her mother to be quiet. Bon travail, Rebecca!

Emma ate at a Cuban restaurant with her sister and her friends and saw the movies Jackpot and 15 Ans et Demi (15 and a Half Years) which is a French movie (I've also seen it... very cute indeed). She also went to one of the big flea markets here with her family.

As for me, well, my family took me to the beach for 5 days. It was very nice but also very difficult because they had some family friends there and I was really quite shy. I also didn't bring a bathing suit. The mother in the other family was Russian, and brought her parents, who don't speak French, which was really cool to see other people in my situation who were older. We were in the Normandie region, close to where Saving Private Ryan was shot. My family was very adamant about pointing that out. The other family with us had two young children, ages 6 and 9, and they both spoke French and Russian, which was really neat to me. I ate way too many crepes while I was there, two each day on Friday and Saturday. (Saturday night we ate dinner at a place specifically for crepes. I ordered a bacon, spinach and cream crepe.) My homestay sister really enjoys seeing movies, so I've seen at least two, one French and one American (see above) and both were enjoyable. I have gotten started on my theater project, and on Monday Annie accompanied me to a HILARIOUS sketch comedy duo called "Garnier & Sentou". It was hysterical, both of us laughed so hard we cried. Afterwards, after asking for a favor from a friend working the doors, we managed to meet up with the two comedians and went with them to chat in a bar next door. What originally would've been a half hour conversation became a 3 hour conversation, which was absolutely amazing. I wish I could describe the night but the words fail me. We conducted the conversation in English, which was interesting. I asked them how they learned English and they told me from watching movies, which I thought was amazing, especially since their English was near perfect. They were really amazingly nice guys and gave me some really good advice for succeeding in the theater world. If you'd like to check out their epic genius, their website is http://www.garnieretsentou.com/. They also have a MySpace and a Facebook, and apparently some of their stuff is on YouTube. They're hilarious. Francophones should definitely check them out. The sketches are full of movement, so what you don't understand can be made up for by the huge facial expressions. My favorite skit that I saw is not on YouTube, but I did locate another fantastic skit that had me crying with laughter. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-IukzJd1M Again, it's in French, but the huge expressions make up for it and some of the French isn't hard to understand. Also, this is just the last three minutes of the sketch, so if you're a little lost, sorry. If you want more, check out the song they have on their YouTube page, "Siamois a toi" (or something like that) because it's also very hilarious, especially live. Enjoy!

The group has been meeting regularly to gallivant around Paris. Monday, we met with Pierre (our friend from La Ferriere) to take a walking tour, where we discovered the Moulin Rouge ("Diamonds are a girl's best friend!"), attempted to find a market that wasn't there, and saw stores selling stolen cellphones (quelle horreur!). Yesterday we went on one of "Annie's Tours of Death" to the Pere Lachaise cemetary, which is the resting place of such known celebrities as Oscar Wilde, Moliere, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrisson. We successfully located his grave and found much silly graffitti on the tomb next to it, including "Rock on Jim" and "Break on through to the other side" which brings us much amusement. We took pictures of the family names that were unusual as well. It should also be noted that Colin and Jack unfortunately could not accompany us... they showed up at the right time at the wrong cemetary. Such a shame!

We would like to thank Jack McHenry for sending a copy of The Rambler to Rebecca. It brought us joy.

That's all I've got for you this week. Next week is Emma's turn, and she'll keep you updated next week. Hope everyone's AMP week went swimmingly.

Salut!
Rachel

Goodbye Argy, Hello PARIS

2008-05-06T21:22:00.007+02:00

Our last week in Argy was pretty...enchanting. It feels like the seasons changed from winter to spring within a matter or two days. The sun and warmth was a welcomed change, and helped us to view the chateau in a new light. We worked hard getting the chateau ready for the medieval festival, painting, plastering ( aka throwing plaster at the wall, no kidding, it was our job), raking, cleaning and setting up tents. Some of the other activites included looking for antlers (Jack), and falling in a lake. A lake of mud (Carly). Colin fell in love.
The medieval festival was relaxing for us, the first day a good sized crowd came and the weather was interesting. We witnessed thunders, rain, hail, and sun all within about four hours. We were all given jobs as "crowd herders" for the tours of the chateau, and some of us helped set up for the medieval "ball" and dinner.
The ball was a lot of fun, especially if medieval dancing is your thing. Luckily, for the past three weeks, we have had medieval dancing lessons nearly every night. Unfortunately, all those nights of awkwardness and humiliation didn't really ammount to much next to the seasoned medieval festival goers.
The next day, our last day in Argy, we were free to roam around the festival and visit the booths. Some people also tried out the stalks. There was an armour booth, a yarn booth, a medieval medicine booth, and a medieval crepe booth. I bet you can't guess which was our favorite...
We also took advantage of the beautiful weather and took a siesta in the grass by the river in front of the chateau. Don't you wish you could type that (and have it be true!)? We said our sad goodbyes to our good friend Meryam, but we didn't get to say goodbye to Jo, who was hosting the joust at the time. We took a bus to Tours and were met with a train station flooded with people; one of the trains was being uncooperative and wouldnt move, so we had to call some taxis. The trains started working again just as the taxi company called to tell us our taxis had arrived...we said sorry.
Amboise was beautiful. Saturday we visited the chateau, which was a little different than Argy. It was fit for a king. And lots of tourists. We also visited Leonardo Da Vincis house, and ate lunch in his garden. We had a free afternoon and explored Amboise.
Paris is amazing. We have all settled in with out families, and are enjoying exploring the city and working on our projects. The weather has been perfect spring weather.
Claire's family has another American student staying with them, who comes from LA and goes to Middlebury. They also have a cat named LouLou who hunts flies.
Carly saw a newborn baby for the first time; it belonged to the aunt of her homestay sister. Her family speaks perfect english because they lived in the US for 6 or 7 years, and they are part Croatian and eat a lot of chocolate, which suits Carly just fine.
Joanna is being passed off from one family member to another, seeing as her real homestay family is in Africa right now, but they return on Sunday. Joanna says everyone who has been staying with here is very nice and she is being taken to Versailles soon.
Esme sleeps in a bunkbed. Also, her homestay sister has a rabbit who acts like a dog.
Rebecca's family speaks in English, Russian, Japanese and French. There is going to be a party of freshman from the most prestigious highschool in Paris at her house tonight.
Colin has two sisters, one who is his age and one who is younger. He also has a younger brother who likes to wrestle. He also plays a lot of board games, and always feels dirty in the house just because it is so nice.
Jack lives at Mount Parnasse (the big train/metro station). His homestay father is a very French architect, and his homestay sister reminds him a lot of his real sister. His homestay brother is cool, and he has already met a lot of his "brother's" friends. His Paris project is going well.
I have three homestay sisters; two of which have done exchanges in Canada. My house is like a modern art museum, but comfortable. My project is going well; there is nothing I would rather be doing than walking around Paris exploring. The weather is perfect, and I am making good use of all the beautiful parks in Paris.

Emma

Le beau chateâu à Argy

2008-04-30T14:48:00.000+02:00

April 27, 2008

Bonjour from Chateau d’Argy once again! This is Rachel with this week’s update, sitting again in the refectory. It was raining earlier, but the sun has been out much more now, which has made everyone a lot happier. We’ve been having a lot of grass battles, and playing games out on the lawn before and after dinner.

Speaking of work, I guess maybe you’ve been wondering what kind of work they make us do here at le chateâu. I’ll give you just a little peek, but if you want to know the whole kitten caboodle, you’ll have to ask us later. In the past week, we have been throwing mortar at walls (a medieval technique) to even and insulate a room and removing old and incredibly stylish wallpaper and matching icky carpet from a room inside the chateâu (we finished this just a few days ago! What an accomplishment!). We began work on a large mural in the new information office (we used a grid system to get the drawing onto the wall. It was arduous, nitpicky work blowing up a small image and drawing it on a wall, with much precise work going into the grid, but in the end we finally got all the outlines down and we are now in the process of carefully painting the subject’s beefy calves and the intricate fields behind him), and we’ve done much weeding, painting, plastering and, of course, sweeping and cleaning and moving heavy objects from one end of the room to the other and back again (in order to clean some more). I have been asked to add, by the entire group, that the woman who helped us begin the mural, Therese, resembled the character from The Incredibles who makes the costumes for all the superheroes… but much taller. Therese also gave us a lecture on frescoes and murals, entirely in French (naturellement…) that was enthralling to hear, even if most of the information wasn’t very new to most of us. We learned a lot of different vocabulary.

We’ve met a ton of new friends here too! Although they just left today, for the past week we hung around with four French boys named Patrick, Guillaume, Vivien and Florian. They busted their backs working with us, then busted them again playing rugby with our own Jack. Last night they even joined us in a large game of Capture the Flag. I should include the fact that I got the flag for the victory of my team… I must say I am proud of myself. I never was much of an athlete, so I also extend thanks to whoever it was that moved the flag close to the boundary line. All I had to do was walk!

Along with our four French boys, we also met two French girls, Meryam and Julie. They keep us in check and force us to speak French all the time. They’re fans of Bob L’Eponge (Spongebob Squarepants) and Kinder Bueno (a type of extremely delicious chocolate).

How is the group faring? I am proud to say that Rebecca and Claire are the only two people who have not gotten sick!! I am not so proud to say that at the precise moment of typing this, I too am sick, but it’s just a cold. War has been waged between Carly, Colin, Jack and Esme, much to the amusement of the other group members as we hear their reactions when they find various things in their beds and suitcases. Our friend Jo (who, if you didn’t know, was our leader for the first week and a few days into the second) took a small group out to have a “(peacock) poop fight” which became a problem when our new French friends arrived to find a group of tired Americans covered in poo. We have been steadily learning the French dance craze known as “Techtonique” (or however it’s spelled) and that our buddy Guillaume “killed Merrie Emmonds” with his moves. (Sorry Merrie, I was told to…) Colin got two tattoos… sadly we expect them to wash off before the end of the week. For one full night, there was an awfully funky stench in the refectory, and we finally traced it to Jack, who smelled wonderfully of Roblochon cheese after making tartiflette (with me, no less!). This would be embarrassing for Jack if he was alone, but sadly, Carly too was afflicted with the stink of cheese (but hers was Roquefort… which is worse?) We also have encountered many large and terrifying spiders, and Jack was chased around with one by Jo. Jack was quoted as saying, in English, “Jo, I don’t think you understand how much I hate spiders!” Of course Jo didn’t understand… we have stories by the dozen to prove he didn’t speak much English. Yesterday (Saturday the 26th) a bunch of us got an Indiana Jones/Jurassic Park ride in the back of a pick-up truck around the grounds of the chateâu, and all of us got a little wet when our driver rooster-tailed in a huge puddle. Carly and Esme had a life-changing experience in a field of daisies (don’t get any dirty ideas… they jumped in smelly puddles of mud!). We’re all in the process of learning medieval dancing, which seems to be Carly and Annie’s new calling. Jack and Annie did some of our dirty laundry (I mean dirty) with a Moroccan man, a Spanish woman, and a French woman who lived in Switzerland working at the Rolex factory. Jack says it was an “international experience.” We thank him for doing all our laundry. There have been various things said about the showering situation at Argy, seeing as there are 10 girls and 2 showers, and then 6 boys and 2 showers. Colin would like to add he now has clean clothes. You can relax in your chair now.

There was a flower market/huge garage sale going on outside, so we all went into town for an hour to look at all the old trinkets. In the sunshine, it was fantastic. We’re all having a much easier time adjusting to the schedule here, as well as the types of work we are doing. The medieval festival is approaching, which is exciting and extremely scary at the same time, because we have to greet visitors in costume and help in workshops, and give tours, all while speaking French (bien sûr!). We have more free time now, which has greatly improved our demeanor. We’re now seeing how cool this opportunity is. We would never get to throw mortar at walls or scrape off wallpaper in Seattle! Here it’s everyday work. We’ve grown to appreciate toilet paper, as there seems to be a constant shortage of it here. (Hey, with this many people in one building…) Small things, we find, make a bigger difference than we give them credit for here. Even shoveling leaves, or painting a wall, in the long run will really help out. (For instance, removing a pile of pebbles and wet leaves from the gutter will protect the wall and keep it from getting too wet and falling down.)

We only have until this Friday left until we depart for our next destination. I’m sure Emma will willingly tell you all about the medieval fair, and I’ll see you in Paris.

À bientôt!
Rachel

What goes down in Argytown...

2008-04-30T14:47:00.001+02:00

April 20, 2008

Our move to Argy has been a big change from our wonderful two weeks of homestays in Bordeaux. For one thing, it is cold here and rains a lot. The town of Argy is very small, and all we can see from inside the walls of the château are the roofs of a couple of houses and the sign for a pizza restaurant that is always closed. They’re pretty big walls completed with a pretty big gate.

Adjusting to our new very structured schedule in Argy has been difficult. Our first week here has been a chain of illness and blisters, and the work is challenging and messy. There is so much work that has to be done ; we arrived for the three busiest weeks of the year leading up to the renaissance festival in may. We are building a picnic area and creating games for the garden. We have been scraping paint off of beams, peeling wall paper, painting, plastering, sealing windows and avoiding cobwebs. There are a lot of cobwebs.

With so much work to do, we have to maintain our energy by eating a lot of food, so everday two of us work in the kitchen preparing massive amounts of French delicacies (not including escargot or frogs legs). A few things we have made are Boeuf Bourguignon, Quiche Lorraine, Gratin Dauphinois and Blanquette de Veau. Jack and I would like to think we make a pretty good Blanquette de Veau, and they say that if you can make a good Blanquette de Veau, all is well. Mmmmmm. When the sun was out, we had a picnic.

The château is beautiful, and the grounds are huge. There are two resident peacocks who make a lot of noise, a lot of interesting looking ducks who leave little presents EVERYWHERE, and one very lonely donkey. Unfortunately, once again, there is not a washing machine here, and Colin ran out of clean clothes two days ago.

Taking a break off of work Saturday afternoon, we got the opportunity to split off into groups of two and three and explore the area with local families. Carly, Rebecca and Joanna visited the Château Valencay with their family, and then ate way too much. Rachel and I visted Loches and got to see the nice dungeons. Jack and Tamara visited the mansion of George Sand and two medieval churches with remaining 12th century frescoes.

After dinner each night we play games for an hour or so, and we have played a lot of games with a lot of yelling, screaming and blindfolds. We also played dodgeball, which hurt. Saturday night we did a little medieval dancing, and Jonathon, our leader, taught us a little bit of the «danse techtonique » which is all the rage in France right now. Or so he says.

We celebrated two birthdays this week : Joanna’s on Monday and Rachel’s on Friday, and Jonathon spent all day in the kitchen creating a monster of a cake : double layered with whipped cream and berries and nuts and chocolate and wow it was amazing.

We thought it would be nice to share a recipe each week, but remember if anyone actually tries this, all of the quantities are meant for 15 people, so downsize accordingly. We also don’t have a cookbook or anything, so a lot of the quantities are estimated.

Blanquette de Veau
(serves 15)

5 lbs small veal steaks
5 heaping spoonfulls of flour
8 cupfuls of water (not measured cups, just drinking glass cupfuls)
2-3 cups white wine
18 carrots chopped a la francais
2 onions chopped
4 big mushrooms, peeled and sliced
3 cubes of boullion

Place a large pot on the stove and add enough oil to cover the bottom. When heated, add the veal. Cook the veal just until the outside is completely white and a little golden.

Add the 5 spoonfuls of flour one at a time, stirring to cover the meat after each spoonful.

Add 6 glasses of water to the meat. Mix the remaining two glasses of water in a bowl with the three cubes of boullion and add to the meat.

Add the wine.

Cover and let cook for 5 minutes.

Add the carrots and onions, cover and cook for an hour and a half, stirring every so often.

For the sauce : after the veal and vegetables have cooked for an hour and a half, laddle some of the liquid into a sauce pan and place over the heat. Add flour and whisk until it has the consistency of gravy. Continue adding liquid and flour until the desired amount is reached. Take off the heat.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice.

Bon chance,
Emma

We're back from our homestays!!

2008-04-30T14:46:00.001+02:00

April 15, 2008

Bonjour, nos familles et nos amis!!

Well, we’re back together as a group after 2 weeks on our own in our homestays on various farms. We all had a blast, and everyone had some great experience they wanted to share with the group, and consequently, with you too. We all discussed our homestays in a roundtable discussion about our experiences and the kind of work we did on the farm, and then chose our highlights, our lowlights, and then a story, if we felt inclined to share one.

Carly stayed on a vineyard in the Bordeaux region, with a family of a mother, a father and a brother, aged 21. Her work involved using a handheld tool, much like a pistol, to attach tape to the wires of the vines to hold them up. The tape was accompanied by staples. Carly has a love of motorcycles, and her highlight was going to a motorcycle show at night to see over 300 motorcycles with her homestay brother. Her lowlight, and resulting epic story, was getting sick in the second week and throwing up in her room, which was attached to a very personal family story.

Rebecca was on a farm of what the French call “forgotten vegetables.” She lived in the same house as a theater troupe. She says she learned a lot about ‘aromatic plants’ and says it doesn’t sound as good in English. Her meals were often given very late, 10:30 PM or later. Her family was a mother and a daughter, age 15. Her family took her to a music festival, to the theater and to Bordeaux, as well as to the markets to sell their vegetables. Rebecca’s work was to unload the vegetables from the car and to then tag all the vegetables with their names and prices. She says the first time she did it, she had about 75% of the vegetables correct, but the second time she had 99%! Her mother was an interesting person who was born in Algeria, lived in India, and knew a little Italian. To describe it, Rebecca said, “My whole homestay was a passive aggressive fight with a gay man. I showed Fred who’s boss.” Fred was Rebecca’s housemate who lived across the hall from her, who would sing songs loudly in the shower and folded his clothes in the hallway.

Jack, too, stayed on a vineyard in a family of a mother, father, brother and sister. His average work day consisted of “man’s” work on a vineyard: “planting the points” or nailing posts into the ground to hold up the vines, from 8:30 to noon and then from 12:30 to 5:00. He also went to the schools of his homestay siblings: the middle-school (le collège) and the high-school (le lycée). He says at the brother’s school, the brother almost got into a fight, which Jack stepped in to break up. He went with a worker at the vineyard to a music show at a club in Bordeaux called The Heretic, a show which proved to be quite interesting as it was a punk show! He says he had a great time, even if sometimes he couldn’t understand the names of the bands. He also attended English classes at the schools he went to and said that they asked him a lot of questions which he answered in English, and said that the teachers spoke with British accents.

Emma was also on a vineyard (I bet you’ve gathered by now that most of us were on vineyards!) and her work day was the same as Carly’s, only she didn’t use a pistol to tape the vines to the wires, instead using her own hands. She lived with parents and two sisters aged 11 and 19. The younger sister became Emma’s “professor” in French, including homework and lessons (Emma learned a poem, but she refuses to recite it for us at the time of writing this). She says her family was very humorous, and very unique: the mother moved to France from Poland and her father is Spanish, but they both spoke perfect French. She says the kitchen was being redone and that the people who worked on it were very funny. They were guys from the town and one guy enjoyed talking to himself and skipping work to work on other people’s homes in town. She went to Bordeaux with her older sister to post posters advertising the wine for an upcoming convention, and then they all went to dinner with friends. No doubt it was intimidating, but she also claims it was the best night and she had a fantastic time talking to les jeunes.

Colin likes to say his overall experience was “like a small Bible.” Colin’s farm was dairy products: “Really good cheese, really good yogurt… okay butter.” The farm was very clean, and there were about 100 cows, 25 goats, a baby mule, some pigs and some chickens. His job was to give milk to the baby goats. His claim is that it sounds adorable until you actually feed the baby goats, which he says smell bad and are stupid and jump on you like puppies. He knows now how to prepare baby goat milk, so if you have baby goats that need feeding, Colin’s your man. He had three very interesting stories to share: he accidentally let all the adult goats out of their pen and had to fetch the homestay parents so they could wrangle them back in. He also accidentally flooded half of the first floor after the shower didn’t drain properly, causing overflow into the other rooms. And lastly, he witnessed a stillborn cow birth, which he said was interesting but, naturally, a little distressing. His parents did traditional Irish dancing as a hobby and says that the dancing was much like Larry Muir’s contradancing class except with Irish music. His father played the accordion, which Colin says is an underrated instrument: “It’s like if a saxophone and a piano had a kid.” The most interesting thing he discovered was that death on the farm wasn’t as shocking as he thought it would be, because it is accepted.

Claire too had an interesting experience. She says she wasn’t quite sure what her farm was, as they did a lot of things: they kept and sold chickens, they cultivated a small bit of pine forest, they farmed cereal grains and they also kept bees for honey. Her family consisted of a mother, father and four brothers ranging in ages from 7 to 17. Her first day, she cleaned the screens in beehives with a butter knife and a screwdriver, but most of the time what she did was varied. She says the whole family, including grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins all lived on the farm as a big business, and along with that, the family also ran a small house to harbor the religious pilgrims following the path of St. Jacques from France to the coast of Spain. She says the highlight of her time was when the youngest son would teach her various French board games and card games.

Joanna was on a vineyard with a 70-year-old couple, the couple’s son and their grandsons. She said the son, in his thirties, really liked the French soccer player Zidane and told a story about how one time he followed Zidane to a restaurant after a game and asked for his autograph. Her homestay mother was “very into being French” and would often tell Joanna, “What I’m doing now is very French.” On her vineyard worked a very interesting man who would sing songs about America whenever she walked by, including the National Anthem. The son had two young sons, ages 8 and 12, who were very cute and sweet. Her lowlight was a constant embarrassment of going the wrong way to do the traditional French greeting of bisous (kisses in the air next to both cheeks).

Esme was on a vineyard as well, with a man and his parents, but no children. She said it was much like going to stay at her grandparent’s house for two weeks, including the food and décor, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t have a good time with them. She said her first three days were spent sitting for ten hours in a room with a bunch of old French men at a wine tasting convention. She says she was the only girl in the room. The parents run a gite on their property which Esme stayed in, mostly alone except for two masons with whom she talked a lot. Her work included working in the field, like weeding with hoes. Her homestay was different as she was not actually in the Bordeaux region, but rather in the Medoc region. She said she spent a lot of time walking and got lost a few times, but always managed to find her way back to the farm.

And last but certainly not least, me, Rachel. I stayed on an organic beef farm with a family of a father, mother and two sons ages 13 and 17. I regret saying I didn’t have much work, though I did do a little gardening and I went with the father on all his errands. My lowlight was a good time turned bad the next day after I went bike-riding (although it was more like spur-of-the-moment spelunking through thorns) with my younger homestay brother and his friend. That was not the bad part, but rather the bad part was when I discovered the next day a thorn buried in my thumb, at the base of the nail in the corner. I managed to dig it out but it hurt a ton! I don’t have any extreme highlights, because my whole experience was wonderful, but one of the best moments was my last night, when we had company over and at the end, they brought out home made cream puffs with birthday candles in mine, and sang “Happy Birthday” in English. It was so touching! Also interesting, and incredibly fun, were the two nights where my homestay father took me to a local theater to see the rehearsals of two plays, one play with kids my age and one play with adults. Most of the kids were younger than me but I did make a new penpal friend while at their rehearsal and we played theater games, which is always fun. The play they were rehearsing was strange, but not in a bad way. It was very much contemporary and very good. The adults were doing more of a comedy piece, which was actually pretty funny and I could understand most of it after the third time viewing the scene. There was a part where they sang in English, which I helped them with, since they wanted help with pronunciation. It was great to see the rehearsal, and cool to see how similar it is even globally between the community theater and the theater at Bush. The process was pretty much the same, which was comforting, but different because it was with older people, in another language. It was fantastic and really jump-started my research on French theater for my project in Paris.

Don’t forget that if you would like to hear more about our experiences, as some of us have some other intensely riveting stories (I’m not just saying that to sound like an advertisement or a book review, but I do mean that some of us had some very surreal experiences that can only be shared one-on-one! I know I did!), you can always ask us to tell you some stories and we’ll be more than happy to comply.

At the moment, I am sitting in the refectory in the chateau in Argy. It’s very beautiful here, but it’s been kind of rainy and cloudy. I hear it’s been snowing back home in Seattle, so at least we have a little more fortune than you folks, but it is very cold sometimes (my fingers are a little cold right now) because of the stone walls, and because it is so airy. We’re all staying in a gite onsite, with all the girls in one room and the boys in the other. There’s been a good amount of work, including cleaning out a small moat, feeding the donkeys and moving carriages. We’ve been here for a day so far and we have three weeks here, so we’re still all adapting to the change from being away from our familles d’acceuil and back together, still swapping stories. It’s a huge change, and it’s very tiring, but also pretty cool. There’s a lot of nature around here. None of us have yet had the opportunity to go into town, but this weekend we are all planning to do so. This week has actually been doubly exciting because of the two birthdays that are happening! Yesterday, April 14th, Joanna turned 17 grand years of age and, incidentally, this Friday the 18th is my own birthday. It’s a very exciting time for all of us!

We miss you all very much and you can expect an update in the coming weeks from Emma. Thanks for reading and good luck with your midterms!

-Rachel

This Week in La Roche Sur Yon

2008-03-29T11:26:00.003+01:00

Oh wow have we done a lot since the last post. I will do my best to capture the essence of this amazing week, but it will be hqrd, especially trying to type on this French keyboard.

For our last full day in Paris, we split up into two groups: one went to the Centre Pompidou and looked at disturbing art (according to Rebecca), and the other went to Montmartre and visted the oldest and last vineyard in Paris, and I especially enjoyed the really good hot chocolate.

La Roche Sur Yon was a welcome change from the busyness of Paris. Saying we were pleasantly surprised with the activities for the week is a grand understatement. The people we have met, the places we have been and the things we got to do were absolutely incredible. Jaky, an environmentalist and naturalist and retired youth guidance counselor, has been our guide. His nickname is Le Gros, which says a lot about him. He wears red coke-bottle glasses , has the most expressive eyebrows and mustache of all time, has a farm and a little forest, likes offroading, playing the French horn, nature, hunting, strong coffee and making fun of people. He had a lot of trouble pronouncing Esmees name, so she became oos-muh for the week. He is pretty amazing. We got in contact with him through Pierre, who was the French intern at Bush a couple of years ago. Pierre likes to drive fast and make fun of us a lot, but we like him anyways.

Monday, we went fox hunting. Seriously. This was with a pack of 25 hunting dogs and on foot. This was a little bit confusing to us because we thought Jaky was an environmentalist, but this was just one of the many French paradoxes we have encountered. Jaky then explained that the foxes would eat everyones chickens, so it was actually neccessary to monitor and hunt them. The French have the amazing ability to look stylish no matter what they are doing, and the hunters were a perfect example of this. The hunters were a bunch of older French men with cigarettes in hand, all wearing tall boots and varying shades of green. There was a lot of standing around, piling in and out of the van and cookie-eating, but finally the hunters and their 25 dogs cornered a fox into a bois - a small forest, and we were positioned around the perimeter and instructed to remain silent and listen for the fox. After seeing two foxes escape, we got to see the dogs corner a fox into its den. After the hunters were sure of the location of the fox, they began to dig and dig and dig. Once a hole had been dug into the den, another smaller dog, a fox terrier, was put into the hole to exhaust the fox. The digging up of the earth was another strange paradox, we thought these guys were environmentalists! After the chase was over, the hunters played their French hunting horns out of respect for the fox.

Tuesday we drove for an hour and a half to the coast, to a road that only exists at low tide. We parked along the road and spent the moring raking for clams, and investigating the other interesting sea creatures. It felt as if the whole area had been drained of water just for the pleasure of clam-digging. And it was warm and sunny for once! After digging, we drove to the island the road lead us to, and had our usual delicious lunch of baguettes, fromage, saucisson and cookies in the grass near a 11th century chateau and church. We then went to the beach, the most beautiful, pictureseque beach. Jack, Colin and Pierre played a game of tossing big rocks-petanque- on the beach. Our lives are so hard.

We also got to spend a whole day in groups of two or three on farms, some, organic, some regular, all had cows. Cows do a lot of things, and a lot of those things do not smell very nice, especially when you have to walk behind them. Colin really liked this. That makes the day sound miserable, but actually it was fascinating being able to finally comprehend what exactly organic vs. regular farming means. Rachel, Joanna and Claire were lucky enough to witness the artificial insemination of a cow. There was also a little scare with the dog who lives on the farm where our gite-rustic accomadations on a farm like ours. Some of us decided to go for a walk and the dog followed but did not return. We all felt terrible, but were making dinner anyways, when alas! Who shows up at our door shortly after we put the cheese on the pasta but the little doggy of the farm! It was a busy day.

We have done so much this week, but when we have a free moment, it is relaxing just to take in our surroundings. We never hear planes out here, you have to wear boots all the time, and when the sun sets it is DARK. The people look like cartoon characters; they are so expressive. Everything is comfortable and lived in. It is a good way of life.

Sometime next week, when there is internet access, Rachel will write a post. Everyone will have to be patient for pictures because we have not found a place where we can upload any here, and we do not always have access to the internet.

Nous sommes ici !!!

2008-03-20T16:29:00.003+01:00

Bonjour tout le monde! This is Rachel and Emma coming all the way from PARIS to update you on our trip! Currently, it is 4:20 PM and we are both sitting in a hotel room. The weather is very much like home. Whether this is good or bad, we haven't decided yet. We got to Paris without a hitch, and thankfully so did our luggage.

So far, both days we've been here have been very exciting! Yesterday, we walked around Paris, ate falafel, and met with the woman who is arranging our Paris homestays. Last night, we got to see the Eiffel Tower. It was sparkly and very beautiful. Today, we walked some more, heavily utilised the Metro system, and our unlimited weekly passes, and visited The Louvre. Even with the jet-lag, we have managed to speak perfect French. All the time.

Paris is a HUGE city, and it's almost overwhelming, but in the best way possible. Imagine downtown Seattle, EVERYWHERE. The people don't walk around with their noses turned up in berets and striped shirts, as some of us imagined, and are very well-dressed and polite. More polite than Seattleites! At night, all the monuments are illuminated, and it is very gorgeous and wonderful to see.

So far, we have learned a good deal of vocab, some which is appropriate for use with adults and our homestay families, and some, which if used directed towards us, is a sign to run away tres vite!

Because this is the first entry, it was collaborative between the two of us. However, from now on, every entry posted will be by just one of us. Next week, Emma will be updating the blog. Thanks for reading! A bientot!

-Rachel and Emma