You don't have to be a pirate to hunt for treasure... St. Guilhem-le-Désert Part deux

After a rather-lengthy absence from the blogosphere, I will now commence the retroactive blog posts... Ready ? Go !

So this particular one dates back to the weekend of June 2...

A magical weekend in many respects, the highlight was definitely my return to St. Guilhem le Désert for an outdoor adventure team treasure hunt. If you recall previous posts mentioning the deserted tranquil nature of the village last time I went, this time that was absolutely not the case. It was bustling with people and the town was filled with constant activity.

So I participated in the hunt with a bunch of friends from the ultimate frisbee team, as well as one friend from home. We were six: 3 American girls, 1 French girl, and 2 French guys. It was an all-day affair, so we arrived at 9am bright-eyed and bushy tailed awaiting instructions. The organisers of the hunt started out with a theatrical skit setting the scene for the day.

It was all in French by the way.

Basically, a treasure was stolen from the devil, so he had released various 'minions' that were wreaking havoc all over the town. We had to complete various tasks to get back into the good graces of the devil, and to eliminate all of the terrorizing creatures.

There were a total of 8 stages, 4 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. Our team was the green team, and we started out with the challenges in the town in the morning. These consisted of finding various people located around the town, completing logic games, and even recruiting passersby to form a human knot ! I also had to search for stamps within the town, and each stamp was a point, or two points on the face, so naturally I asked for all of the stamps to be placed on my face. Those were some interesting conversations, especially because there was a 10-minute time limit. We also did archery in the morning !

At the lunch break we had a picnic before the outdoor adventure tasks began...

The village is situated in the mountains, so it was beautiful, and perfect for unique challenges. One involved using a compass to locate a hidden message in the woods, another involved climbing a REAL rock wall on the side of the mountain !!!!!, and another required us to fight to the death in a small creek. Ok we didn't really fight to the death, we just had to grab the 'sock tail' from behind the other guy, by I like that other description better.

In the end it seemed like we were going to win it all, but when that didn't happen, we assumed they miscalculated the points and considered ourselves winners anyway.

After the day concluded, we went to one of the team-member's houses for a barbeque, and it was so fun. A perfect end to the day :)

Now for some pictures...

tir à l'arc skillzzz

Our awesome team !

hiking through the wilderness !

One Banana, two banana, three banana, four.

Today I gave a banana to a homeless woman.

I think I was a lot more excited about it than she was.

Pamplemousse

Nothing like an afternoon pamplemousse** to give you a welcome burst of energy.

So, the rest of this post has nothing to do with pamplemousse (or bursts of energy for that matter).

Earlier this week I taught at the stage d'anglais, which is basically a three-day intensive English course at the beginning of each school break. It is open to all high-school students in the district, and gives students a chance to "willingly" improve their English. In some cases parents force their kids to attend, so students aren't necessarily willing to listen. For instance, I had one boy who was drawing the entire time. When I took away his precious artwork, he proceeded to draw designs on his hand and arm. He didn't show up for day three of the stage. Oh well.

The rest of the students were pretty eager to learn, and I had fun teaching. They asked me if I would be back for the next stage, and told me I was "a very good English teacher." And yes, despite their constant tend to switch into French, they said all of these things in English. Progress !

On the last day, I had the students make "Top 5 Lists," involving important aspects of French culture. I told them to make Top 5 lists according to various themes like songs, movies, famous people, etc. The only requirement for the list content was that it had to be something well-known/popular in France. I got some interesting results. As you read on, please keep in mind that these lists were generated by high-schoolers, so this does not accurately reflect/portray French culture as a whole. You'll also notice that all lists do not contain five elements...I wasn't teaching math, but yes I'm pretty confident they can count to 5.

Songs
No Woman No Cry
Stairway to Heaven
Skyfall

Movies
Intouchables
Titanic
Zero Dark Thirty
Into the Wild
V for Vendetta
The Artist

Bands/Singers
Bruno Mars
Bob Marley
Kid Cudi
Psy.
Selah Sue
Adele

T.V. Series
The Simpsons
Walking Dead
Game of Thrones
One Tree Hill (called "Frères Scott" in French, which means "Scott Brothers")
Malcolm in the Middle (just called "Malcolm" in French)
American Wives
90210 Beverly Hills (phrases are always reversed in French...it's an adjective thing)

Famous People
Jean Dujardin
Nelson Mandela
Gandhi

Places/Things
Eiffel Tower
Jaconde (Mona Lisa)
The Louvre
Times Square
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
Buckingham Palace

(a little New York heavy in my opinion)

Books
Harry Potter


I learned a lot from this lesson. Take from it what you will.

After the stage, I went out to lunch with the other English teachers from my school. We went to this cute little restaurant in Lunel, and the food was delicious. I took a few pictures of the magnificent desserts, so feast your eyes...

I just loved the flower decor !

Well that's all for now folks ! 

xoxoxoxoxoxo


**For those curious readers out there... pamplemousse = grapefruit

Extra, Extra, Read All About It !

Hello!!

How is everyone doing?? Any news??

I want to give you all the head's up... I was interviewed for a french radio station this morning!! Two Montpellier frisbee players were invited to come talk about ultimate frisbee and our upcoming tournament, so I went with another player, Antoine, to spread some frisbee love around the south of France.

The interview was in a big fancy studio, and the station is a popular radio station in France called NJR (pronounced 'energy')! It is a station thats markets toward the 18 - 22 year-old crowd. They will air 30 seconds of the interview tomorrow at 6h30, 7h30 and 8h30 in the morning (your time that would be tonight around 10h30, 11h30 and midnight30 if you are in the eastern time zone) and also in the evening (afternoon your time).

So you should try to listen!

http://tunein.com/radio/NRJ-1061-s36654/ (radio station link - I think they stream live; and it would be the southern region of Montpellier)

The interview took about 15 minutes and I was a little nervous because it was all in French. However, I think in the end it all turned out ok. I've never been interviewed in a radio studio before, so it was quite an experience. I kind of felt like a celebrity. It was awesome. The host's name was Julien, and he kept reminding us to stay energetic by saying 'after all these are young people you're talking to - you don't want to make them fall asleep.' Haha merci Julien.

Welp that's all in terms of excitement for now.

Love you all and Happy Valentine's Day !!

xoxoxox

Alexandra

Mademoiselle & Chocolat

Despite the rainy weather on Sunday afternoon (it actually snowed around 10am, but I was fast asleep in my warm bed), I was still able to enjoy the city and take advantage of the many wonders of Montpellier!

To start off the afternoon, I went to a lovely little museum that had a free exhibit called "Adieu la Suisse." This culturally enriching exhibit featured photographs by several different artists. The photographs depicted different places in Switzerland. Some focused on nature, and others explored the wonder of day-to-day activities. (One set of pictures delved into the interesting world of la poste. (a post office) The exhibit got me excited about my upcoming summer travels to Switzerland!

After this culturally enriching experience, we met up with some friends and I discovered the wonders of a place called "Mademoiselle & Chocolat" who's tag-line is, "Chocolate in all it's forms." Everything for sale is homemade, and purchasable items include : chocolate fondue, hot chocolate, cookies, crêpes, and other chocolate-inspired desserts. White, dark and milk chocolate are available in any of the above forms. Downstairs is a cute little homey room with a big comfy red couch. It was a relaxing and delightful experience. The bathroom was the funniest part of all...It was the tiniest door you ever did see...as even I had to duck to get inside, and then you had to crouch down the whole time to move around in there. I felt like I went back in time for a few minutes and was exploring the facilities of a grand old chateau. In french, the bathroom is sometimes called "le petit coin," which literally means "the little corner," and this was indeed a little corner. Well-named.

Ok well that's all for now folks!

Pont du diable and the Exploration of a Small French Village

On one of the beautiful weather days last week, some friends and I journeyed out to the infamous "pont du diable" for a little sight-seeing action. Nature didn't disappoint, and I spent a peaceful afternoon skipping stones across the still pond.

Germany x 4, France, Spain, and U.S. representation!

It's a beautiful day on the bridge!

We found this cute little farmhouse restaurant. It was right after we got off the bus, and I really had to pee! In order to use the facilities we had to purchase some items. Oranginas all around!

I love how the water is reflecting the sky.

Me with the two other language assistants from my school! Kerstin in the middle is the German assistant, and Ana on the right is the Spanish assistant. Not only do we all teach in the same high school, but we all live in the same neighborhood in Montpellier! Imagine that :)

Finding a spot to settle on the beach.

You will find the legend of le pont du diable in the picture below.

The legend was written in four languages! French, English, German, and Spanish. Perfect for our international crew.

After enjoying our lunch on the beach, we all ventured up to St. Guilhem-le-Désert. It was a very cute village, and wonderfully peaceful. We didn't see a soul out, which only added to the majestic atmosphere.

Fire hydrant!

Outside the bus station. We had to take the tram and two buses to arrive at our final destination. 

On the bus-ride home, I met a girl studying chemistry in Montpellier. She is from the Czech Republic, and it was so interesting to talk to her.

We had such a lovely day, and it was nice to experience a smaller village and imagine how different life would be if I lived there.

How To Read a French Cereal Box

The other morning as I was enjoying my petit-déjeuner (breakfast), I thoroughly examined my cereal box. After three months, I have finally discovered my favorite type of granola. The one pictured is a close second, but my favorite one comes from a German grocery chain called "Lidl." The slogan that "everything is cheaper at Lidl" is 100% true. Some grocery stores can be pretty overpriced. Anyway, I digress. For the purposes of this exercise, we will be examining the cereal box below, purchased at another supermarket called Géant. It is like the mother of all supermarkets, with an endless variety of anything you can think of, from organic food to slippers.

As I was saying, the cereal box caught my attention, not only because it was in French, but due to the suggestions on the back of the box...

Faites attention!!  Make sure you only buy granola that says "croustillant" (crunchy)  otherwise you'll get a bunch of raw oats, which I don't like at all unless I'm going to cook them to make oatmeal. I only say this, because I made the mistake of buying a croustillant-less box of granola one time....I donated it as a gift to my French roommate who loved it. To each his own.

Back to the box. As you can see below, the kind people at the cereal company give you suggestions for a well-balanced meal. This well-balanced meal includes a bowl of their muesli, or granola, (of course), "125 ml de lait demi-écrémé"  (this is basically the equivalent of half-milk, and it's what most people drink/use, which was surprising to me. When it comes to milk your choices are basically half or whole milk. They definitely don't have 2%, and my preference - skim milk - is challenging, yet not impossible to find. Skim milk does exist, but a lot of times stores will be out of it, consistently leading me on a wild milk chase.) 

Ok, so to round out your meal, you apparently should consume 2 kiwis and a cup of tea or coffee. On pretty much every package, some "meal guidance" like this exists. Usually the advice includes some kind of chocolate...sometimes in the form of hot chocolate...and I'm actually kind of surprised this one doesn't. The French love their chocolate, especially in the morning. (In the cereal aisle, the amount of chocolate cereal variety is slightly overwhelming.) Anyway, a kiwi (well always 2 kiwis) is typically the fruit of choice, no matter the box/box contents. Kiwis are also appropriate for dessert. How thoughtful there is so much guidance to help me create well-balanced meals.

Something else I like about the box...they tell you the "Energie" in kcal. It is indeed energy, so I'm glad it's described as such. "Calories" don't give you much information on what they actually are/do for you.

Something I don't like about the box...half milk is the suggested addition "pour mieux apprécier le croustillant de ce muesli" because it has half the fat, but just as much calcium. I still like my lait écrémé better.