Toussaint

This week has been fall break for us. It is in honor of all saints (Toussaint) November 1st. So, the Williams came to visit us on our week off and what a busy week it has been! Just to outline the cities... Lyon/Paris/Bayeux/Colleville-sur-Mer/Bayeux/Caen/Paris/Lyon/Perouges. Click here to see an album of pictures from Lyon:

Lyon with Williams

More coming soon! (have to go to bed now... their flight home is early tomorrow!)

oh la grève

TER is on strike today... that is SNCF's regional train service. So, my 6:22 train was cancelled this morning. Lucky Doug didn't have to work today. I had to take a "remplacement train" bus... when I got on, the driver started asking if anyone knew the route where we were going. Considering we were all riding a regional bus the day of the train strike, it is pretty safe to assume that at least the majority did not own cars and therefore did not know the driving directions! So, people started trying to get directions on their cell phones to tell the driver. It took over an hour, but I still got to Belleville with enough time to make the 20 minute walk to school before 8AM. Today is going to be a long day!

Constance was baptized Sunday. When I was here in 2005-2006, she was the cutest little girl...

(February 2006)

she has grown up a lot in the last few years and is a very sweet young woman.

This will be a busy week... tomorrow will be a big cleaning, grocery, and cooking day... plus we need to renew our "abonnement de travail" (work pass for the train), and we're having Ketty and Linda from church over for supper. Thursday after work I'll go over to the Hendrixes (with lots of groceries!) and start cooking for the weekend. Then the Williams arrive Friday morning and it is a full itinerary for the next week! They are going home the 31st and we don't go back to work until the 5th, so we are trying to squeeze in another trip. We both really want to go to Cinque Terre, but I don't think we'll be able to find cheap tickets at this late date.

Picnic and House-sitting

Pique-nique!

Today several assistants (11 all together) met at Parc de la Tete d'Or for a picnic. It was really cold, but in the sun it was really nice. It was fun to hang out and exchange stories from our first couple weeks of teaching.

We are house-sitting for the Hendrixes this weekend. It has gotten cold the last few days... Doug brought his winter pajamas :) We have enjoyed watching movies... and this evening Doug discovered Conan on one of the tv stations! He is so excited!

Wednesday stroll

This afternoon we went to Bellecour to look for the St. Exupery statue that I just read about. St. Exupery was from Lyon... the statue was put up in 2000 for the 100th anniversary of his birth.

I love this quote from Le Petit Prince:

(One only sees well with the heart. The essential is invisible for the eyes)

We then walked over to Vieux Lyon and then back over the pedestrian bridge.

And had a gouter from Brioche Doree- they had a special for 2 euros for a massive pain au chocolat and a hot drink.

It is so much colder than it was last week, but it was still really pretty today... not a cloud in the sky!

good news

Proverbs 25:25- "Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."

Jessi sent us this picture this past week... Doug's fish, Gustave Putnam, lives!

long days...

Tuesdays are extremely long days. I leave at 6AM to catch the 6 :22 train, and have 6 hours of teaching through the day (spread out, of course), don’t finish until 5 :45, so I catch the 7PM train back to Lyon , getting back to the apartment around 7 :45PM. Doug’s long day is Thursday, but fortunately he only has his early class every other week. We are both only teaching about 12 hours a week, but the hours are spread out. After this week, we just have one more week until fall break !

Weekend Update

I forgot to take my camera with me this weekend... but here's a short update:

Friday was our orientation with other secondary assistants in Lyon. It was actually pretty useful and we got to meet lots of other assistants, which was fun. Several of us walked around Bellecour and stopped at a cafe. We invited two over for supper afterwards for Doug's famous meatloaf, roasted potatoes, green salad, and plum/apple pie.

Saturday we met another assistant and went to Hotel de Ville (city hall) which was open for tours. It was like a mini-Versailles! Afterwards we walked over to Bellecour for lunch at a bouchon. Afterwards we picked up the very popular "Petit Paume," a city guide made by students, and saw free concerts in Bellecour. The theme was '50s (American) rock, which was humorous. It is just kind of funny to hear Elvis sung with a French accent.

Today was church and then lunch with the Hendrixes. They took us to a really good restaurant near their house that is Italian/Syrian. Interesting combo, but very good food!

This afternoon we just did laundry, watched a movie (the Hendrixes have loaned us tons of movies!), and did some paperwork and other organizing. We have just about planned our trip for fall break and are also working on a Paris trip to meet Bobby and Bonnie in November. We have all of our train tickets and hotel reservations... just need to finish planning the other stuff!

Well time for bed... tomorrow's a teaching day!

Half Day Wednesday!

If you didn't already know, schools are only half days in France on Wednesdays! What a great mid-week break! I don't work on Wednesdays anyway, so I did grocery/market shopping, cooking, and cleaning this morning while Doug was gone. When he got home, we went to Bellecour and walked down to Perrache and back, stopping for a "gouter" at Paul near the Ampere Fountain. It was really warm today (80!), so lots of people were out enjoying the weather.

Ampere Fountain

(Andre-Marie Ampere made significant contributions in electricity and magnetism... or something like that... he was from Lyon)

my gouter of choice: tarte aux framboises

people watching near Bellecour

Monday...

This morning Doug and I both took the 9:22 train to Belleville. From there, Doug is picked up by another English teacher and is driven to Beaujeu. I get to walk 20 minutes to the schools in Belleville. It is good excercise, but I wish I was in tennis shoes and not carrying a bag with my computer and folder of class rosters, etc. On Mondays I have one class this morning in the middle school... then I have a 3.5 hour gap til my next class (in the high school). So, I did a little lesson planning, walked over to Carrefour to get a sandwich (I wasnt feeling up to the 5 course feast in the cafeteria), I just caught up on emails... and I still have an hour and a half til my next class. I am going to have to bring things to do for these long gaps! I have a couple of gaps on Tuesdays also, but the longest is about 2 hours.

Church service in English

We just got back from the English church service... here's what we thought:

-nice to sing in English

-preacher was nice

-preacher's wife was nice

-liked sermon

Although it was nice to do something different this afternoon, we probably won't go back... it just wasn't worth the distance... especially since we are already involved in a church.

Saturday stroll

Yesterday we went to the market and grocery, went by the SNCF boutique to get our work transportation passes and then went out to Bellecour for lunch. We both got the "Menu Classique" from Brioche Doree... big sandwich, dessert, plus drink for 5 euros! We ate in front of the Louis XIV statue in the middle of Bellecour.

We then went to Vieux Lyon and took the funicular up to Fouvriere Hill.

We walked around a little bit... the cathedral is just so big!

Then decided to walk down. We walked down, down, down, all the way to Vieux Lyon. We passed a trompe d'oil painting...

Then we walked down across the Saone through part of Croix Rousse, to Place de Terraux and took a break at the big Bartholdi fountain.

Then we walked across the Rhone and back to our apartment. We went back to the SNCF boutique to get all the train tickets for our fall break trip with Doug's parents... Lyon-Paris, Paris-Bayeux, Bayeux-Caen, Caen-Paris, Paris-Lyon!

This morning was church... just ate lunch... we might try an English worship service this afternoon at the "International Christian Community" of Lyon. They have non-denominational English contemporary worship services twice a month... it would be nice to sing a little in English :) And it seems like a pretty fitting day, since today is the "Great Communion"- the 200th anniversary of Thomas Campbell's "Declaration and address"... and a celebration for Stone-Campbell movement churches all over the U.S.

First day of school plus day of rest

Doug thinks my posts are too long and boring, so here is a very concise report of the last two days...

Thursday was our first day of school! It went really well for both of us.

Today we went over to the Hendrixes' for lunch and catching up... it was great.