Field Trip Folly Episode 5: Carnaval de Nice

Bonjour mes amis,

This weekend, CEA took us on an overnight adventure. First stop: Nice, France for the Carnaval and the famous Bataille de Fleurs.

The weather wasn't gorgeous - 55º and foggy. The beach looked even more unreal without a clear horizon line to divide the sea and sky. Doesn't it look peculiar?

We found some cover under the canopies of the market stalls erected again the mist. Many vendors sold tiny fruit trees, including kumquats and mandarins.

Others sold impressive looking fruits, vegetables, and other typical fare.

When the weather let up, we headed to the shoreline.

I fell in love with the chunky pebbles that make up the beach. Naturally, I picked though them for a while, attaching myself to some smaller ones. My rock collection is reaching dangerous levels!

I can't get over how classically gorgeous my friend Melina looks here protecting her hair from the wind and rain. There is a certain type of woman that can pull off pin-up, and she is definitely it! 

The colors here were a photographer's dream, I tell you...

Before heading off, I found this gem: a simple "hey you" from a clever stranger. Thanks for making my day, random writer!

Commemorating 100 since the first world war, this Statue of Liberty replica stands just near the same beach on the Quai des États-Unis.

Guilty pleasure time! Mcdo to give us the greasy energy needed to......

....take the elevator up to the top of Castle Hill. How awful are we! To be fair, we were on a cramped schedule...

The views were just beautiful.

For some reason, the colors of the building and the sea look so much more brilliant from an aerial perspective.

The main attraction, the Carnaval parade and Bataille de Fleurs, started as soon as we came down. It featured 20 floats covered in flowers, most of which are grown locally in the French Riviera.

The costumed actors jet bouquets out into the crowd. Getting ahold of one is quite (difficult read: dangerous) as zealous spectators trample each other to hoard even the most common branches of mimosa. I was really disappointed with the spirit of the crowd. Even children were being elbowed out of the way by adults carrying huge bouquets.

Otherwise, the festivity was quite interesting. 

Us gals had a blast! Check out some of the floats and attractions:

Though I'm sure how he ties in to the "King of Gastronomy" theme, there was this massive botanical beast floating around.

A hula troop,

samba girls,

 and space princesses?

Even a smoke-spitting dragon!

With a few crushed toes, we even walked away with a few flowers.

Thanks for the unique experience, CEA! 

Field Trip Folly Valentine's Day Edition: Pétanque in the Park

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you were able to have some quality time with whomever it is you're fond of.

I was surprised this morning by a bouquet sent to me by my sweetie, who coordinated their delivery all the way from the U.S.

He is so good to me! Soon, I'll have big, fragrant lilies perfuming the house. I love that man...

In the afternoon, CEA arranged a pétanque lesson with our excursion buddy Georges. We invaded the park, 30 strong, to the surprise of many an old joueur.

He explained the rules, which are somewhat similar to those of bocce ball, or even marbles.

Then he played a few practice rounds before setting us free, heavy metal balls in hand.

First, you divide into teams of 3 people, with 2 balls each of a similar shade of patina, and a recognizable pattern of lines on each one. Next, you draw a circle in the dirt, with a long strip of field in front of you. Then you toss a little neon indicator ball between 6 and 10 meters ahead of you on the terrain. This becomes the target.

Once the indicator ball is lobbed, each player tries to land their ball closest to it. The play is passed to the team whose balls are further from the indicator, so that they may attempt to "beat" the closest ball. For example, Player A on the black team plays first, tossing his first ball. Then, player 1 on the silver team plays, but lands her ball farther from the indicator than Player A's. Player 1 plays again, with his second ball. If this ball still lands farther from the indicator that Player A's, Player 2 on the silver team will play. If her ball lands closer, play is passed to player B on team black.

Sounds complicated, huh? Try gathering all of that in French! After all 3 players on both teams have thrown their balls, points are added up based on whose balls are closest to the indicator ball. If the first closest ball is team silver's, and the next closest is team black's, team silver scores one point. If team silver has two balls closer than any of the black team's, they score 2 points, etc. Play continues this way until someone scores 13 points.

You should have seen some of the Frenchmen playing their games with their rulers, ball-fetching magnets, and custom ball sets! I can bet you that many of them had been playing pétanque for 20 or more years. Still, it was fun to play with the amateurs!

Best of all, CEA surprised us with an enormous raspberry mousse cake and champagne. It was such a sweet gesture that made my Valentine's Day sans Matt almost bearable. Almost. ;)

But seriously, it was some dang good cake!

Thanks for reading.

Substitute Teaching

Bonjour toute le monde!

Yesterday I played substitute teacher for 2 French classes while my professor was away. For the 300-level, I just proctored an exam. But for the 100-level, I was able to make some cute little handouts and lead my own lesson. I had a great time!

Above is a rather dramatized version of my family tree. Lucky for the students, I didn't have enough room to define all of the complex relationships in my family, nor list all of my cousins. However, I was able to provide a pretty good overview of the vocabulary from their book. I also provided them with a vocabulary reference page that they could keep in their binders.

First, we went over the above list of vocabulary by way of call and return. Then, I went through the rows and had each student read a vocabulary word out loud until we reached the end of the list. This way, we could work on their individual pronunciation and liaison between consonants and vowels. 

After, each student drew their family trees and wrote descriptions of 2 family members each, using the vocabulary they have already learned such as likes and dislikes, physical and personality descriptors. Everyone did such a good job!

As per usual, as soon as I think I have my future mapped out, I find a new interest... Hopefully I'll be able to sub a little more sometime so I can decide if I should go back for my teaching license after grad school.

Thanks for reading!

Scientia Mutua Mundi

Hi again everyone,

I am so very pleased to announce that I have been excepted into the WIU Eta Epsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Delta (ΦΒΔ)!

ΦΒΔ is an international honor society dedicated to recognizing scholarly achievement in international education. I can't wait to be inducted so I can begin networking with other members!

Have a good day!

Alumni Annual Giving

Hi all,

I just wanted to share with you a little project I was involved in last semester...

Essentially, I was chosen by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature to write this letter to the Department's alumni in order to collect donations for our scholarship fund. As this is only a proof, though, the actual document differs slightly... I think it turned out rather well!

And yes, they are still accepting donations! ;) Have a great day!