Paris to Manchester and Back Again

Whoops it's hard to believe I let a month go by since the last post!

I am currently on the tail-end of my vacation. I spent a weekend in Paris with Lizzie, which included biking around Paris, seeing my old roommates from Besançon, and a particularly poor restaurant experience with a rude manager who finished by crumpling up our bill with a "c'est fini," and us walking out without paying. We also had several very good restaurant experiences, but alas it's the bad one that sticks out most in our minds. Looking back though, all we can do is laugh.

I just returned to Paris last night where I am now staying with an old friend. I spent 10 days with Lizzie in Manchester but unfortunately I had to leave her there as she has finished work in Rennes! We had an excellent day trip to York, a bike ride around Manchester, went to see two plays, a visit to the Unitarian Church and afternoon tea with Lizzie's grandmother, meet-ups with old friends, and overall a splendid time.

Today I am off to Reims for the day to see the sights. I look forward to welcoming my family here on Saturday!

Another Day, Another Gig

This past Friday marked my second acoustic concert in Bar le Saint Melaine, though this time without the disco lights! My friend Georgia sang with me on four songs, including my original tune Liza Ray, and considering we only had two rehearsals it went very well. This time a big group of Spanish teaching assistants came out, as well as some good friends from Rennes. I think it's safe to say that no banjo player in a bow-tie and suspenders has ever graced this bar before. There is still so sound equipment, though he says he will get some. I intend to look into playing elsewhere as well.

Teaching is going pretty well, though it can be a bit dull sometimes. I did the same introductory lesson for a new class yesterday that I've probably done 15 times now. I'm getting pretty good at it! Since most of the classes I see regularly are divided into small groups and I am assigned work to do with them, I plan lessons for relatively few classes. I've probably been using the same 6 lessons or so for months now. I do have a small group I see every Tuesday now that will give me an opportunity to be more creative. I have noticed while doing the same lesson for many different classes how varied a class's response can be to what I am doing! Sometimes a particular lesson works great with one group, and is a complete flop with another. It just shows me that if something doesn't go well it isn't necessarily that I am doing a poor job. I do, however, think that it's very important as a teacher to read your students and try to adjust in order to connect with them.

This weekend Lizzie and I lucked out as her employers were driving up to Saint Malo for the day, and offered to give us a ride! It was nice for me to return as it has been nearly two years, and it was Lizzie's first time visiting the fortified coastal city. I should have pictures up soon! I finally have the brakes fixed on my bike, and now Lizzie has one as well, so as the weather turns I'm sure I will take advantage of the canal by my school more and more. We rode into town and back along it yesterday, and spotted some very large rodents swimming around after dark. It was hard to get a good look, but we've decided they were probably muskrats.

On that note, I had better get ready for class. Happy Tuesday!

Music and the Art of Franglais

I am happy to say my concert was a great success! I think people heard and enjoyed my music as about as much as they could enjoy any acoustic banjo show without amplification in a noisy bar - and of course, I can't forget the disco lights! In all seriousness, I had a lovely time. Many of my friends and aquaintances, especially fellow teaching assistants, showed up. They were all very kind. The owner of this bar, Bar Le Sainte Melaine, made it clear he would be very happy to have me back, and so I plan to schedule another concert soon. I am, in fact, in this bar at the moment, taking advantage of the wifi to upload some photos to facebook and a few videos of my concert to youtube. Ah - and my friend Gael was nice enough to let me borrow his Martin guitar for the concert! This definitely added something.


I started off the week interestingly enough; I asked two students to leave from a group of four I was teaching for consistently being disruptive! I told their teacher after class, and she was very unhappy to hear that and told the principal. I saw him later that afternoon and he asked me what had happened, and then I saw the students sitting outside his office the following morning! I see that they take discipline seriously here. Other than that teaching has been going pretty well. This week I've done lessons with a few classes on "fake" English words used in French. They use English a lot in French, but oftentimes in ways that wouldn't be understood by a native speaker. A few examples: "les people" means celebrities, "un smoking" is a tuxedo, and "un relax" is a lounge chair!


À bientôt!

English Christmas, French Castle

Christmas has past, and indeed the new year is well on its way as I begin my third week of classes since returning from vacation. I am long overdue for a blog update!

To briefly recap on Christmas:

I flew to England with Lizzie and spent the holidays with her family and making the most of vacation. I met and spent time with lots of family and friends of the family, talked, ate, laughed, watched mostly quality television programs, played "Dance Central" on Xbox Kinect and more. Pictures of Christmas day can be found on my facebook - a hectic but happy family meal and then present opening gathered in the main room. I will have to show off my new banjo cufflinks! New Year was spent in Birmingham with friends of Lizzie's that had also become my own as I had the privilege of meeting a few of these young British Unitarians this summer in Illinois at OPUS, and then more this past September at the BUYAN conference.

Since back I organized a successful dinner for language teaching assistants in Rennes with about 15 people at what has become my favorite local Indian restaurant. I took a successful trip to Vitré to see the old walled city and castle with some good friends. I've been sharing banjo music and American culture as best as I can with my French students.

This past Thursday a friend from back in Knoxville, Amien, came to visit. It was good to see a face from back home, and have the opportunity to show someone around Rennes. We went out Thursday for drinks and music with Lizzie, a French friend, and another American assistant, and walked around the city at night. Friday we spent a good portion of the day walking around the city, finding respite from the intermittent rain when possible. At least Amien didn't get any misconceptions about Breton weather! We saw the premiere of Black Swan that night, a ballet thriller with Natalie Portman that is definitely worth a watch. Afterwards, like a true Breton, we went for crepes and cidre.

I have managed to line up a concert this coming Thursday at a bar in town! I have been wanting to play for a while, and I heard from a colleague that Bar le St Melaine, which holds ERASMUS parties (for foreign exchange students). would be a good place to ask. The owner was very enthusiastic about my proposal for an acoustic concert, and was happy to book me without even listening to my music! I hope he won't regret it. This seems a really nice place to play, and the owner told me if it went well he'd be happy to have me regularly. I had better get to practicing! Luckily Gael, from whom I bought my banjo, lent me a guitar in December. When I was over yesterday to play music with him he asked me if I was planning on using the old guitar he lent me in the concert, and when I affirmed this he said he would bring one of his nicer guitars with him to the concert for me to perform on. Quelle chance!

Well, now that I'm more or less caught up, it's time to do lesson planning and music practicing. I'll update soon... no, really I will!

Christmas Markets, Banjo Music, and Mont Super U

The Christmas season is upon us! In Rennes, this is apparent in all the streets of centre-ville, as the streets are strung with lights and many trees have benefited from the same decorative spirit. Downtown is a jolly sight! Then there's the Christmas Markets. Rennes has a small Christmas market in Place du Parliament, with food, drink, and goods. You can get a glass of vin chaud, a galette-wrapped sausage, and pair of Tai shoes all in one location. Additionally, Marché de la Creation can be found not far away. This is where artisans, jewelry makers, and those crafty types come to sell their wares for the Christmas season. And a plus - they've set up a large structure in Place Hoche for it so you're almost indoors while shopping!

Last Sunday I welcomed a couchsurfer named Marianne, a fellow teaching assistant working in Provence, with a group of us to Mont Saint Michel. It was a cold and rainy Sunday. Five of us there were in my little car, and on the way there the gas gage seemed to suddenly jump towards zero, and the gas light came on warning of a potential untimely end to our pilgrimage. We kept driving, looking for gas, but it turned out the closest gas station was over 30 km away! It seemed a bit far for the little car. Our directions had us turn off before we reached this gas station, and go a different route through some small towns. It was at one of these that we stopped and a couple of my passengers got out to ask around for the nearest gas station. Apparently the local pub owner they happened upon didn't seem to keen on pointing us in the right way, but grudgingly told us of a Super U in a nearby town where gas was a-plenty. Super U became our holy grail. Could we possibly make it? I was getting increasingly nervous about the state of my fuel tank. Finally we saw a sign for Super U. I took the exit on the roundabout that seemed to lead that way, but I saw nothing ahead. I turned around, and headed towards town. No... this wasn't right either. I went back to the original exit, and kept driving. What is that on the horizon... can it be?... not... Super U!! We had found it! I drove thankfully towards the gas station, entered, and parked my car beside the fuel pump. Then we had a knock on the window. We had driven in the exit, and were asked to leave and come in the right way. Apparently this gas station had a strictly one-way policy. It was set up so that you filled the tank and then on the way out drove by a booth where you payed. So... gas was acquired. The trip to Mont Saint Michel could recommence!

We finally arrived at the Mont. The cold and rain were still present, but the beauty of the place was ever evident. We had just enough time to walk through the main road up to the Abbey (which was free to enter because it was the first Sunday of the month) and explore its cold, bare chambers, before we had to get Marianne back to Rennes to catch her train. She missed it unfortunately, but we tried...

Yesterday I brought my banjo to class and played some Old-Time tunes, namely Shady Grove and Sandy Boys. I talked a little about this type of American folk music, and then the students had to figure out the missing words from the lyrics sheets I gave them and I played and sang. It was a success! In the afternoon I saw free music in downtown Rennes as part of the music festival TransMusicales going on here this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of it all! I saw groups such as Eat Your Toys, Fuckin' Hell Orkestar, Von Pariahs, and Lena Deluxe. I confess I was most interested in Fuckin' Hell Orkestar, because with a name like that they had to be worth a listen, but they were my least favorite. They did however, live up to their name by singing "fuck" a few times in every song. I was really impressed with the female lead singer of Lena Deluxe. She could really wail! The music reminded me of a cross between Joanna Newsom and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. In the evening I went to Le Sambre, a bar in centre-ville, to hear some of the music in the festival Bars en Trans, which is happening in conjunction with TransMusicales. These are concerts by lesser-known artists, in intimate settings, as apposed to the huge stages in the South of the city. This is what I prefer. I barely managed to squeeze myself into a basement to hear Causette - Apero P.O.U.F (Petite Organisation Ultra Feminine), where three oddly dressed ladies sang in harmony, banged on electric guitars and played kazoos with electro pop beats in the background. It was definitely fun. They were followed by Dissonant Nation, a kind of grunge rock group that was talented and entertaining. My major complaint is that they end of their songs by shouting "one, two...one, two, three four!" This is an acceptable way to start a song (they also started it like this) but I'm really not sold on the ending.

Hopefully I'll be able to fight the cold that is coming on and see some more great music today!

No Power, No Heat

The electricity went off in my school yesterday around noon, and with it the heat and hot water! Something broke just on the school's power grid so that all the buildings next to us were perfectly fine. After my last class, I spoke to the teacher (I had taken a group of four to a separate room to discuss job interviews), and she told me that the power wouldn't be on until the evening. Later, as the sun was going down, that prospect seemed doubtful. Luckily, Lizzie had come over as is now a Monday ritual to watch the new episode of The Walking Dead. She suggested I could stay with her if the power did not come on, and happily the family she works for didn't mind having me! I packed up a few things in the last minutes of daylight, with the aid of Lizzie's headlamp (how many girls keep one of those in their purse?), and went into Rennes for refuge from the cold and dark night descending upon us (and in search of crepes). On the way out we ran into the nurse, who was coming to check on me, and I learned that the power was not to be on until the next morning, and that classes were canceled until the afternoon because of it!

I was able to spend the night in a warm house after all, and meet the kids that Lizzie works with. The little boy Léon is so cute, as of course is the baby. I do not know as of yet whether the power is back on at school... I will venture in that direction shortly. It has been quite cold for Rennes this morning, -5 Celcius (23 Fahreinheit), but it seems to be unusually cold all over at the moment! I had better go, à bientôt!

Parisian Gargoyles and French Cowboys

Happy Thanksgiving!

I confess the end of November is not my favorite time to be in France. The lack of Thanksgiving here stands out to me like a sore thumb. The Christmas markets are being set up, but not yet open, and the town is still in the process of being decorated. There is a lull where Thanksgiving should be. Still, there's been lot's going on here.

Saturday night I was invited to a "Bal Country" in a little village just south of Rennes... I was surprised at what I found there! A whole load of French people had gathered to do line dancing in cowboy hats & all sorts of gear to good ol' country tunes, a lot of which were probably recording in Nashville. I imagine it wasn't all that different from what I might see at the dance club Cotton Eye Joes in Knoxville, but we were missing a mechanical bull. These people apparently had been taking classes for a while, because each song had a corresponding dance that was not exactly self-evident. Lizzie, Elza (a russian language assistant I invited along), and myself tried to follow along the best we could to the less difficult dances. Still, it was great fun! They sold food, drinks, and cowboy gear, and everyone was very friendly.

Tonight I am tutoring the vice-principal's two oldest kids for the second time. Their family lives just next to me, and they asked me if I would be interested in giving English lessons weekly to their daughters, ages 8 and 14. The family is really nice. They also have a young son with autism. Apparently there is a concert for children with autism going on at a hospital nearby next month, and I might have the opportunity to participate in it! I think a little banjo and wazoo would entertain any crowd.

Over the long weekend thanks to the eleventh of November, Lizzie and I had the chance to go to Paris. It was grey, cold, and rainy for most of it. But hey, it's Paris! I had already been to most of the known sights and museums, but one thing I hadn't done is climb the tower of the Notre-Dâme de Paris. This was my favorite activity of the weekend. Although we didn't have to pay because I have my "Pass Éducation" and it's free for EU citizens under 26, I still had doubts about it being worth the line we waited in to get up there. It definitely was, and the long, narrow spiral staircases up to the top with rusty handrails were only part of the experience! The view from the top was excellent despite the fog, but even better was a close-up look at all the grotesques and gargoyles jutting out from the sides of this massive church. I encourage taking a look at the pictures!

note:
I had to go to Quick to post this, a French/Belgian fast food chain. You'd think the Belgians would know their fries, but they were not up to the standard of McDonald's! I don't like either restaurant, but I confess I can appreciate a few french fries (but not the French kind...) every once in a while.