Bienvenue à Rennes!

Well, now that I've had a nice little vaycay from my blog, it's time to catch everyone up, using photos:

Life has continued to follow the format I mentioned in my previous post, with a few changes here and there. On Mondays I am student teaching English to a class of French 8th graders. They are rowdy but nice on the whole. My observations on French authority issues continue to line up with all of Madame Allen's theories on the subject as well as the classroom atmosphere presented in Entre les murs (The Class). The teacher I'm assisting is a native Michiganer who seems to be not so fluent in French. She confounds the French students (who are used to the iron-fisted, discipline-driven methods of their French teachers) with her laid-back, creativity-inspired, positive-feedback, totally American teaching methods. I introduced myself to the class this past Monday, and overall things seemed to go well. After my presentation the kids asked me questions about my life using the past-perfect tense (Have you ever been...?, Have you ever gone? etc.), an interesting exercise in which I was asked 5 times if I had ever been to Los Angeles (evidently this is a popular destination?).

St. Vincent, the private Catholic school where
I am student teaching, looking intimidating.

I have now done some exploring around Rennes and have a better sense of how the Centre Ville is laid out. St. Vincent is located right next to the Jardin des Plantes (yes, another brilliantly titled Garden of Plants), a rather beautiful collection of greenness in the midst of a lot of gray. Spring is well on its way, and I can't wait to see this park in full bloom. I'm looking forward to spending Monday afternoons here, reading a book under a tree and breathing in the perfumed air of life.

Carmen taking a picture of this small
fish-filled fountain in the Jardin des Plantes.

Flowers blooming in the Jardin.

The Centre Ville itself is a collection of old buildings from a variety of decades, many dating from the Middle Ages. Most of the cobbled streets look like something out of the opening scene of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, giving the ville an almost fairy tale cast.

Near Métro Ste-Anne. Buildings with wood thatches
are medieval; others date from 18th century.

A canal runs through the center of the Centre Ville.

Canal with rainbow!

Rennes is the capitol city of Brittany and therefore boasts several fancy government buildings.

What I believe to be the Parliament building, at dusk.

And, like all other European cities, Rennes is home to a good number of churches and cathedrals.

This one was built in the 10th century.

Host family life continues to be wonderful. A weekend later than planned, Charlotte and I made chocolate chip cookies. The whole family absolutely loved this exotic treat, though Charlotte was a fan of the dough in particular.

Charlotte licking a spoonful of
cookie dough for the first time.

The Berthaut family:
Charlotte, Manu, Maxime, and Carole.

I continue to be struck by the familiarity of family life which I can only assume is universal. We laugh together and tell each other about our days, good and bad. Maxime and Charlotte fight...and then Maxime and Charlotte get in trouble. On Friday nights a "fun" dinner of finger foods, pizza, and ice cream is served in the living room during the Friday night travel show, and on Saturday afternoons Maxime and Charlotte have swimming lessons, the highlight of their weekend. Life is so normal, and yet so strange here.

Next on the agenda: St. Malo again this weekend. This time I WILL bring my camera so that I can share one of the coolest places ever with you. Then the weekend after Carmen and I embark on a whirlwind journey to Geneva and Venice. A good portion of our time will be spent on a train, which is an adventure in itself. I'm nervous about traveling Europe by myself, but I'm sure it will be wonderful!