Spinning the dreidle in France.

You all know that my last Jewish experience was a bit awkward- at the local Synagogue. I knew after that Channukah would have to be at chez nous instead!

It was a bit of a tight squeeze...eight people and a feast in a room made for two. But in these cold times, the more bodies the merrier!

The preparations began two days earlier. We put up the xmas tree and the menorah, both of which are not exactly conventional.

The Xmas tree is completely edible (except for the outline). It's made from 11 carefully moulded balls of chocolate, and one chocolate angel holding a chocolate candle to be consumed on the 12th day of xmas.

The menorah is even less conventional...I mean at least the xmas tree takes the shape of a xmas tree, whereas nine candles is where the resemblence ends with the menorah. But we did find a real kiddush cup, to give it a bit of a traditional kick!

(Gefiltafish magic!)

Channukah started on friday night, but we had our feast on Saturday. By 8pm the house was clean, and any furniture we didnt need had been re-located to the terrace. The whole place (possibly the whole street) smelled totally oily...in a delicious sorta way (obviously!). The menu comprised of gefiltafish (my first ever!), salad, tajine with couscous, latkes, risotto, bread, sufganiot (that's jam doughnuts) and dreidle shaped shortbread! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sorry you guys couldn't come...(hehe)

It was a weird mix of people. In our little microcosm we covered most of the world (how PC) Japan, Taiwan, America, France and ummmm Australia?

Our microcosm lent us chairs, cutlery and crockery to be able to put this feast on.

We had ten bottles of wine, most of which were "tasted" by our good friend Amy.

For some reason, we all kept hitting our heads: i still have a bump on mine.

There were some engineering problems. the xmas tree kept dismantling itself and all the candles of the menorah caught alight (only 2 were supposed to be lit). No one noticed... must of been those bumps on the head!

A couple of late arrivals turned up at 1am to help us finish any leftovers. Unfortunately they didn't lend a hand cleaning up (hmph!)

But its ok cos we now, at 8pm Sunday, have a clean house once again, are about to eat leftovers for dinner (yumm i love leftoversssss) and start planning the next feast for Christmas!

Five more tourists in Paris 8-11 Decembre

Paris is really the heart of France, with a fifth of the population, the famous metro, the famous everything really, and so lots of things to see. So we put on our sightseeing boots, jumped on the 300km/h train and got ready to "do Paris" with our friends Rudy, Michel, and Julie.

The plan was to see as much as we could during the day, go out at night, then spend a few hours recuperating at Rudy's apartment for the next day. And despite sleeping through alarms two days in a row, and the warmthless sun, we managed to do find enough thigns to keep us busy for two days, one morning and three nights.

So, we climbed Mont St. Martre

Popped down to the Arc de Triomphe

Were inspired by le Tour Eiffel

Then we stuck around to see it at night

We saw the Louvre

Which is absolutely immense

And heard a choir in St. Eustache, which is immense too

And at night went to a nightclub on a peniche on the Seine, and to the Quartier Latin

Then we took a stroll down the Monopoly board, to the French equivalent of Mayfair: Rue de la Paix, where we felt right at home, because it just happens to be the street we so humbly live on (in Aix).

We ate nearby in a great Italian joint (white truffle gnocchi)

And found our first Israeli falafel in France (it's been too long)

And then generally sampled the drinks menu here and there.

While we were in Paris, it was the Telethon, which is a 50-year old treadition where every community group in France, schools, firemen, churches, sports groups, really, everyone, puts on uniforms and does fundraising in any which way to raise money for rare diseases research. Here, for example, are some pompiers taking kids up and down ladders for a small donation.

So, in the end we managed to keep ourselves well occupied, with the help of the "genialement grave" Mitch and Rudy, and of course our good friend Julie, and back on the train to Aix where our classes are finally coming to an end for this semester. Which means: next stop, les vacances!

The Sound of Music goes: brrrrrrr! 1-3 Decembre 2006

The Alps are the mountains between Italy and the rest of Europe. They are the hotspot come the cold weather for all sorts of people who like to take a break from walking, because for five or six months a year, the Alps are invaded by skiers. One of the popular destinations is the ancient city of Briancon, sitting astride three important valleys near Italy, enjoying the view from the highest point for a city in Europe. We went there for a weekend, to help some friends warm up their house in preperation for their season as ski instructors.















We drove up with our friend Julie, and stayed in the house of Raphael, who has the biggest collection of novelty hats and 3/4-empty bottles of spirits of anyone we know. We arrived just in time for the house-warming, which was lucky because they couldn't get the heating working.















The next day, we explored a little. It wasn't snowing, but we found that it was quite picturesque nevertheless.






























We found a river made of melted snow!















Then Sam put his hand in, which wiped the smile off his face!

Then we were given the official Raphael Visitors Have Come Over Tour of the old part of Briancon, which is an ENORMOUS fort, on top of a mountain, which is full of shops and restaurants.















Obviously, it's been a point of great dispute (hence the massive fortifications) and I guess the city just got sick of arguments all the time. So the local warlord decided to put an end to one object of argument and installed sundials EVERYwhere. In a place where it snows half the year.














Here's the edge of the old city. The only old part that is outside the big old cold walls is the church.















We stayed for two nights, and eventually drove back down the mountain back to Aix, but as a memento we took this photo to show you on a real scale the height difference between some of the highest mountains in Europe and Sam.

Just call me "Sir"


This is a little bit of info about the job Sam's doing here in France. His official title is: assistant de langue etranger, or in school terms, "assistant anglais", "prof d'anglais", "Sam", or "Maitre".

He is teaching English in three primary schools, to three year groups, in three towns, outside Aix. They're called Bouc Bel Air, La Salle, and Simiane Collongue.

On this map, where it says Bouc Bel Air, is actually La Salle, and the key-hole shape in the big green patch in the top left is Bouc Bel Air.

In total there are about 300 eleves, in 14 classes. They range from 7-11 years old, and the longest class is 1.5 hours long. He works two days, and really cool school hours: 8.30-11.30 (with 1/2 hour recreation period), then two hours lunch, then 1.30-4.30 (with 1/2 hour recreation). He eats in the school cafeteria, where he gets special attention (big portions) from the staff, with most of the students. About 1/5th go home for lunch, and some of the teachers. Here's a picture of the staff at one of the schools on lunch break in the staff room.























Every day he works he uses songs, and rhymes, and games to teach some unclearly defined targets. The teachers arwe happiest when the kids aren't bored or too excited by the end, but then complain a few weeks later if they haven't learned enough. It's hard to find a balance, when there are a fair few objectives and for 6 of my classes only half an hour a week. But, sometimes he even enjoys it.

Last of all, here's a photo of one of the rooms where he works his magic, with one of the teachers.
























I couldn't take lots of photos of cute French kids. Not allowed, so you'll just have to reread and try and imagine them.

Where do all the naughty students go? the Law catches up with them

I thought I'd share a little info about my uni: le Faculte de Droit.

On the outside, the fac looks a little dominating. This is the least intimidating angle, from outside the library towards the main batiment.

Inside, it's not much more friendly, as you can see.

I do four subjects: One Masters level subject (private international disputes), you can see the classroom above.
And three second year subjects: Droit Civil, Droit Administratif, Droit Penal.

All these classes follow the same formula: one professor sits up the front, and talks and talks. Basically, dictating a long essay. Everyone takes down every word. It's even organised into subheadings: Premiere Partie (first part), Chapitre 1, Section 1, Paragraph 1, "grand A", "petit a"(here's the actual course, e.g. le principe [the principal]). And most parts are linked to a certain article in one of the Codes, which is the basis for French law. The first ones came under Napoleon, and the latest in the early 90s. The masters is different because is uses the articles of European Union conventions instead. Veeery dull.

Here are some friends in my class, celebrating the end of the first semester with a crepe.

L-R: Mailys, Douda (Audrey), Nans, Coco, Thibaud

So there you have it. Any questions? too bad, here, you don't ask any.

Dinner Party 24 novembre 2006

We had a little dinner party chez nous a little while ago, and it was a pretty damn good night. The people who came over are some of our good friends here.

There's Jerome and Tiphane, a cute couple, who while normally are very funny, sometimes fit a little too much chocolate mousse in their mouths.

And then there's Julie, who's got a really cool, quirky sense of humour, has friends and contacts everywhere, and who we see more often than anyone else we know.

We had a really long and hedonistic meal, with fried polenta in blue cheese sauce, our favourite salad, onion and almond soup, and chocolate cake and mousse, plus a few bottles of wine, including some blueberry wine we'd brought back from Serbia! Woohoo! That indigestion was well worth it.

Here are a few more pictures of us kicking around Aix.

And Briancon, which you'll be able to read more about in a future blog.

Some last thoughts on Beograd (27 Octobre-3Novembre 2006)

To finish our series on Belgrade, we thought we should point out some quirks!!

Interesting Belgrade fashion. The girls may be hot, but the fashion is NOT.

What are those things hitching a ride on the corn??(ps we are not in the country here, but the main road of Belgrade)

Our first flakes of snow were in The Balkans.

Belgrade is a child's heaven, with the best toy stores in the WORLD!!!

Great in season organic food goes really well with Serbian specialty hot chocolates!!

Active Serbian politics, with the anti-eu anti-nato communist party still kicking, and supporting a recent boycott of a recent constitutional referendum.

The Serbians are still celebrating the end of the war.

Lastly, for those Counting Crows fans: I think I found the "Perfect Blue Building"