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.

Talking Immigration and Metro Danger

It is Tuesday yet again; how time flies! I didn't work today because the students I normally see had fallen behind due to the strikes and needed to be tested. So, that means that today was like most of my days as of late: of my own making. What with grocery shopping, buying train tickets, listening to all of the new music I checked out from the library, meditation practice and yoga, the day filled up quickly. I am at the library in Rennes at the moment, and planning on checking out even more cds... most of them Blues of course. I found a five-disc set of Charlie Patton recordings. Oddly enough, not all the songs are of Charlie Patton.

Yesterday morning I walked into class to be handed a sheet of paper by the teacher depicting three scenes related to immigration in the U.S., and was told to take a handful of students from the class and spend the hour discussing the definition of immigration, the pros and cons of immigration, and helping the students describe the three photos on the sheets. "I wonder how this is going to go," I thought to myself as I received these instructions. Talking about such a topic with no preparation struck me as a bit odd, but as I began asking the students about immigration things fell into place, and in fact we didn't even have time to describe the last of the three pictures. I can't say that we discussed anything terribly insightful, but I think the point was more to get them to talk and expand their vocabulary. Later that afternoon I worked with four students on reading and responding to a text about high school part-time jobs in the US. I must say, I am surprised to find the immense difficulty some students have in reading aloud in English. I hope I can be of assistance, but as I see the same students so very little I fear I will not help them improve much!

This weekend Lizzie and I met up with a few other TAs, one Irish, one German, and one Jamaican, for cider and a chat, and then dinner at their apartment the following night. We had planned a trip to Mont St Michel on Sunday, but alas, the rain made the prospect rather unattractive. Lizzie and I did, however, have an adventure of sorts Sunday night. Coming back from a film, we were walking down the stairs of the metro station only just in time to see the train pulling away. Then we heard an announcement: that was, in fact, the last one that we had just missed. We walked back up the stairs to see a gate slowly closing over the second set of stairs leading to freedom. We though this meant we had better take the elevator. We stood at the elevator for a few seconds before Lizzie pointed out the "hors service" light lit on the side. The elevator was closed for the night! We ran back to the stairs and literally just made it in time to slide past the closing gate before being caught underground. I assume we could have contacted someone if we had been closed in, but I don't really want to find out! Moral of the story: find out when metro stations close and stay away from them at this time. Walking home from the center of Rennes wasn't exactly what we had in mind for the evening, but I am just glad it wasn't raining like it has been the past few days.

I have more pictures up of Lannion. I encourage a look; it is truly beautiful along the coast!

Breton, Seafood, and a New Old Car

My vacation is coming to an end, and soon it will be back to the grind, slaving away with French students 12 hours per week. Before this happens, let me recount some of the notable events of the past week or so. First of all, I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome little Anna into the world. The mother who my girlfriend Lizzie is working for had a baby girl a week ago today. She was back from the hospital two days later, and as far as I know everything is going well.

I was a bit of a film addict last week. Lizzie and I saw "Kaboom," a bit of an avant-garde film that I think is most enjoyable, provided one is prepared to accept the inexplicable and absurd. We also saw "The Town," which wasn't half bad. Last Wednesday night I saw "The Duelists," an English film from 1979. It was set during Napoleon's reign in France, and although the period costumes were quite nice I didn't really get much out of the film. I had brought my banjo into Rennes center that night, intending to play at an open mic I had read about after the film. I found the bar where the "scene ouverte" was taking place, but it was not what I expected. The mic was, in fact, open, but it came with a full band. Indeed, I was invited to play my banjo backed by a drum set, a bass, and electric guitar. I decided to forgo playing "Liza Ray" or "Graveyards" (originals) and instead play some "Sweet Home Chicago". You couldn't really hear the banjo over everything else but it was fun. I then did "Wagon Wheel", which none of them had heard of. I suppose that song hasn't made it to France. I hung around and watched others sing Eagles and Beatles songs, and later sung "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and helped out with "Come Together." The evening reminded me of playing a live version of the video game "Rock Band" more than anything. Apparently that was the last evening they will be having the open mic until December, but I was told about another one that I intend to look into. I have decided that claw-hammer banjo doesn't really fit into rock music, so hopefully the next one will have a solo option.

My good friend Benjamin (old roommate from my days in Besançon) and his brother came to visit Friday, spending the night on their way to a wedding. Then Saturday morning Lizzie and I met my friend Iwan (old roomate from freshmen year of college) who just started work in Paris, and who was in Rennes with his car ready to take us to his parents' house in Lannion for the weekend. His parents speak Breton (the traditional language of Brittany) to Iwan and one another, which is closely related to Welsh. Experiencing the northern coast of Brittany was really interesting. We were able to walk along the coast in several locations and see gorgeous bays, islands, rock formations, and ports. I encourage you to check out the photos on Facebook. I was able to try a lot of seafood from the region, including oysters, shrimp, crepes with smoked trout, and mussels with french fries (the ever popular "moules-frites" dish).

Overall the trip was relaxing and very pleasant, which proved to be a stark contrast to the way back. Iwan had a train to catch at 9 pm Monday night, and we left Lannion around 6 pm. The drive normally takes 1 hour and 45 minutes, but Iwan did not factor in the large amount of people that were also traveling back towards Rennes as the vacation period was coming to a close. Traffic brought us to a crawl, and then a standstill. By 8 pm, we were still 68 kilometers from Rennes. We were beginning to doubt that Iwan would catch his train. The plan was originally to take the car to his grandfather's house and keep it there, with the possibility of me coming to use it later since Iwan could not keep it in Paris. By 8:30, Iwan knew that there was no time for this, and as the traffic had let up, he decided to race the clock to get to the station on time, and if he made it leave me with the car at least temporarily. I thought for sure we wouldn't make it! All three of us were in the car stressing unnecessarily about getting to the station while Iwan was cursing and weaving down the highway.

Unbelievably, we pulled up to the station just a few minutes before Iwan's train was due to depart. He jumped out, grabbed his suitcases, and ran into the station. I switched to the driver's seat. I would move the car to a nearby location and wait to make sure Iwan had caught the train. I cranked the engine. Uh-oh. The engine didn't start. I tried again. Cars in the drop off point behind me were getting impatient. I checked that the starter was on. It was. Still no luck. Lizzie pushed about 10 the car while I steered so we could let people by. I tried again. Then I got a call from Iwan, he made it on the train! I told him I was having some difficulty with the car. He assured me it would start if I kept trying. I was beginning to feel pretty anxious at this point, and unsure what to do if I couldn't get the car started. Finally I tried it with the starter off. The engine came to life! Now to figure out how to get from the center of Rennes to my school by car. I was surprised to find I managed it quite well! So, I currently have a car at my disposition, but I will use it as little as possible until I make sure I can be added as a secondary driver to the car or that it is fine for me to drive. At any rate, Iwan is happy for me to use it because otherwise it would be sitting in his grandfather's garage for as much as a year. This could come in handy!

Thanks for reading everyone.

Strange Asian Films and Teaching the Blues

Despite the fact that the buses ran even less than before on Wednesday and Thursday (most bus lines didn't run at all) because of the continuing strike, I did have classes to teach! My favorite was definitely Thursday afternoon with the English teacher Patrick's class. I brought in my ukulele and played Robert Johnson's "Kind-hearted Woman." Before doing so I gave them all lyrics sheets of the song with some words missing that they were required to fill in while I was playing. We also talked about Robert Johnson, some of the legends surrounding him, and about the Blues. I played the song through once, then we discussed what words the students were able to get. No one got the word "evil" the first time around. I went through line by line and explained to the best of my ability what Robert Johnson was speaking of and why it was written this way. The second time around the students were able to fill in the rest of the lyrics, and after explaining their meaning we moved on to talk more about the Blues. I explained how sometimes blues lyrics were a coded method of talking about problems that couldn't be expressed overtly, just as oppression by white society. We talked about how the Blues help alleviate pain, and how there is an element of hope within the sad exterior of Blues songs. I don't know if the students enjoyed talking about this as much as I did, but I felt very good about the fact that I could share a great interest of mine. Most people know of the Blues but don't really understand what it is all about, so if I can help in any way with that understanding I think I am doing a great thing.

Thursday marked my last day of class until after the vacation period. I am off all of this week! It seems a bit strange to be off after just having started, but I am not complaining. I have decided to stay in Rennes during this period so I can get to know the city better, and also spend time with Lizzie, who has come to Rennes to work as an Au Pair and is needed close to her family as a baby is about to be born! In keeping with my desire to see more of Rennes, Thursday night I went to see a series as part of a short film festival showing at the Theatre National de Bretagne in Rennes center. It was sold out. After walking around Rennes for about an hour, I decided to buy tickets for a different series in the festival that was playing after the one I had originally intended to see. In the meantime I found a bar with a Jazz Manouche band (so very French) and picked up some reading material about upcoming events. For more on this style of music you can take a look at ever-so-helpful wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_jazz.

The heating isn't on in my building, but luckily with the help of Corinne (an English teacher here) I was able to get an electric heater for my room. I had a slightly unpleasant surprise Saturday morning when I found that the hot water had been turned off in my building for the holidays (someone had forgot that I was staying there) but happily I was able to get it sorted by late afternoon. It seems the turning on/off of hot water is all done by computer here, and someone here at the school had to call up a guy in Paris who gave him instructions over the phone explaining how to do it. What a world.

Oh! The short film festival. I saw a series entitled "Orient Extrême," mostly made in South Korea. A lot of the films were a bit gruesome for my taste, but some were absolutely hilarious. My favorites were a group of businessmen with "samurai spirits" who decided to avenge their master's death with inflatable hammers that looked like they were bought in a state fair, and a man who was auditioning for a role where he had to turn himself into various objects. He was asked for something sensational, and shape shifted into a bomb which began a 5 minute countdown. The judges began to get very nervous as the countdown reached its end, and puffs of smoke from the bomb made it appear that the man was trying to change back but was unable to do so. As the clock reached zero the man changed back, only to find the room empty. The judges had run, but left a note that said "accepted" on the desk. The scene was hilarious!

More to come soon.

Three Weeks in Rennes - Already!

It has been one week now that much of France has been on strike, including many teachers and students, protesting the French government's plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018. Because of this I have been teaching less classes than I normally would, and today is no exception. Normally, I have 5 classes scheduled for Tuesday. It looks like I will be teaching one day, that is, if the students show up! Several classes last week had zero students. It was just me and the teacher, waiting. I didn't mind too much though as this happened to my last class twice, and meant that I ended my work day a bit early.

I arrived in Rennes three weeks ago today, and have been quite busy in that time! I started working in my lycée two weeks ago today. I work 12 hours a week, and I very rarely see a group of students two weeks in a row. Many classes I see every other week (usually about half the class each time), and otherwise I work with small groups within the class, in which case it will be quite a while before I see the same students again. The level of English that the students posses varies surprisingly from within the same group. Especially when working in small groups of four, it becomes apparent when some of the students don't understand a single word I say, whereas others easily get it and tend to translate for their less fluent companions.

At this point I have navigated most the of French bureaucracy necessary at the beginning of my stay. I have completed all the procedures to validate my visa, signed papers, opened a bank account so that I can get paid, and, most unexpectedly, I was able to receive a six-month pass for free public transport in and around Rennes! I have also purchased a cheap bike from an older French fellow who's advert I found online. I have purchased a banjo from a really nice French man with a healthy appreciation for Old Time and Country Blues. I am staying at my school for the moment, and though it is a bit out of the city (40 min walk), I can catch a bus into town in 20 minutes, or in 6-10 minutes to the nearest metro station, which quickly zips customers anywhere they like along the line in a much more pleasant atmosphere than bigger city metros.

I hope that this blog will prove useful and/or interesting. At any rate, it can serve as a record of my professional life and cultural experiences in Rennes. Perhaps it will be of use to other English Teaching Assistants in the future. For now, I leave you with this thought:

The grapes in France have the seeds in them. This seems quite natural, except for the fact that as an American I am quite unused to eating grapes with seeds in them. Must one extract the seeds from each grape and place them in a little pile at the edge of the plate? This makes eating grapes very time consuming. Is it acceptable to merely chew and swallow the grapes as if the seeds were not there? The loud crunching coming from the grapes is rather disconcerting. Hmm... ponder at will.

Update:

I had no classes today! There weren't any students to teach. Blogger.com is blocked on my school's network (where I also live), so unless I find a way around it my blog posts will not likely correspond with when they are written.

Also, today at lunch I sat next to one of the English teachers I work with in the school cafeteria. She had grapes! I observed her removing the seeds from each grape from her mouth and placing them on her plate. Yet, she still seemed able to consume them at a reasonable rate. Perhaps it just takes practice.