Olives and company... we're living the dream

 This past weekend bore witness to me checking off yet one more experience on my life's to-do list: taking part in the annual harvest of olives in Provence.  I cannot express how privileged I feel to be included in such local celebrations and to experience them not as a tourist, but as a neighbor and friend, perhaps even as a long-lost relative. The atmosphere of this part of the world is one of instant family and it seems so strange to me now that I was warned against it by my host family in Paris. It is natural, I suppose, as we all harbor prejudices, but I feel more at home here than I ever did in Paris. I am more excepted, viewed as someone worth knowing and not a simple everyday stranger, or even worse, an intruder.  I would like to think it is due, in part, to my openness and enthusiasm for the culture, a love that runs surprisingly deep for someone with such new and minimal experiences here.  All the same, excitement is contagious and I find that when someone shows interest, the other party reciprocates, and the process that follows carries a snowball effect.  Friendships are formed, dreams are born, and the desire to travel and learn grows even stronger.

The olive harvest held a dreamlike quality for me. As a child, I was always in favor of reliving history, taking myself back to a time before modern conveniences and dreaming up romanticized visions of such a life. While I am now well aware of the less-than-ideal life styles that existed before my time, I still take great pride and pleasure in participating in age-old traditions that have survived wars, plagues, changing political tides, and technological advancement. I feel somehow more connected to the old world, one which took nothing for granted and who truly lived the phrase "waste not, want not." If this trip is teaching me anything, it is to truly appreciate everything I am given, be it time or whatever, and to make everything count for something.

Livin' it up at the Hotel... Existence

In reading Paul Auster's Brooklyn Follies, I came upon a thought-provoking and, according to my students, difficult subject.  Auster addresses the concept of a place called The Hotel Existence. It is, in theory, a place in one's imagination that one uses as an escape from life's everyday trials and tribulations. It is a dream-world, a "happy place," the existence of perfection that we find lacking in real life.  Auster's original description of this place come from the imagination of a character who has lived a life of extreme highs and lows touching on little to no stable ground in between the two. His first Hotel Existence is one of a safe haven for orphans of war, a place of warmth, comfort, and love. As he grows, however, this vision is replaced by a darker, more seductive fantasy, yet nonetheless inundated with the clear and present desire to be loved.

I find that the imaginary existence of such a place of perfection brings to light many questions rarely addressed in everyday life; until being asked about them directly, we dare not dedicate any semblance of conscious thought to such inner thoughts.  I asked my students a number of questions, to which I received mostly vague answers (one cannot expect personal answers from 18 year olds unless they are assured you will not read them), but their reactions to the exercise gave me the impression that they had never encountered such demands of personal reflection. When reading over the questions to myself in their silence (I had given them a few minutes to conjure up some ideas), I found it to be quite a personal challenge. The exercise demands serious contemplation, and in the end, one can learn a great deal about oneself by assessing what one considers ideal or perfect. The greatest question for me was relating to how the dream has developed over the years; where was the imaginary place I frequented as a child, an adolescent, and now and adult? What does that say about what I consider important? After some reflection, how is this surprising? What is not present that I would normally include, and if it is not present, what is the explanation?

Here is the exercise:
1) Why is it important to have a Hotel Existence? What is the importance of dreams?
2) Where is your Hotel Existence? location, qualities, ambiance, your age there, activities? Who else is there with you? What are your needs that are met in this place?
3) How has your Hotel Existence changed over the years? Reflect on what you admired in the past, your hobbies, your likes/dislikes, activities with friends. What were your needs? Where/what did you dream of visiting? Was it set in a fictional place in history (distant past or future)?
4) How and why does the Hotel Existence change/develop over time? What are external forces that drive our dreams, beliefs, needs? How does our perspective/our attitude towards life change over time? How does our concept of time and history change?
5) Why is it important to promote imagination and creativity in children's minds in early years of life? How would that be helpful later in life?

Are you up to the challenge? Where your Hotel Existence?

Vive le potimarron!

For those across the pond... this is the "pumpkin" that has become my new best friend.  It is the puree in my latest french versions of pumpkin pie... not to mention the skin tastes great salted and baked. Below is the first recipe I tried to have a taste of some traditional North American tastiness; it calls for honey, for which I used honey from the Maritime Alps, and the pie retained a slight hint of lavender. Interesting to say the least...still tasty, just a bit unexpected as far as flavor is concerned.

Fresh Pumpkin Pie 

Original Recipe Yield 1 - 9 inch pie

Ingredients

         1 medium sugar pumpkin

         1 tablespoon vegetable oil

         1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie

         1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

         1 teaspoon salt

         4 eggs, lightly beaten

         1 cup honey, warmed slightly

         1/2 cup milk

         1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

Cut pumpkin in half, and remove seeds. Lightly oil the cut surface. Place cut side down on a jelly roll pan lined with foil and lightly oiled. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Either mash, or puree in small batches in a blender.

In large bowl, blend together 2 cups pumpkin puree, spices, and salt. Beat in eggs, honey, milk, and cream. Pour filling into pie shell.

Bake at 400 degrees F ( 205 degrees C) for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted 1 inch from edge of pie comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Finalement, ça fait la realité

A few weekends ago, I took my bi-weekly trip to Sospel to spend some quality time with my favorite people in this country, Patricia, Roland, and the family. Lucy (the assistant from New Zealand teaching with me at the Lycée) joined me for a weekend of adventures that we will both remember for the rest of our lives.  As we drove home, I realized that with each passing visit, I end it with the declaration, "This was the best weekend EVER!" I don't believe there is a limit to the number of "best weekends" one can have when one is surrounded by such splendor and warmth of spirit.

With cooking lessons and nature trips upon each visit, I find it increasingly difficult to pull myself from Sospel's niche in the Maritime-Alps at the end of each weekend.

This trip was particularly meaningful because it held my very first personal experience in the places I had only seen until then in my grandfather's black and white souvenirs of the Second World War.  Of these historic places, I knew their names, their stories, their men, but I had never seen them in person, let alone in color.  Et quelles couleurs! Manifiques! Splendides!

We had celebrated the liberation of the village of Sospel just the day before our voyage into the mountains in the WWII relic of an American jeep, and at certain moments, the sensation of walking the path of my grandfather's footsteps 65 years later gave me chills.






















I was feeling the hallowed ground beneath my feet at nearly the exact moment that he was doing the same over six decades before, and it was though I was seeing the mountains through his eyes and the eyes of his comrades, my heros, luminous with the changing of the colors, as if nothing had changed.

Imaginez-vous.... oui, je sais, vous êtes jaloux.

For the sake of recording some images of my travels by way of this blog...
The following is a series of photos of my adventures at the Festival des Brebis in La Brigue (a small french town on the Italian border, that, until the Second World War, belonged to Italy).

I never cease to be amazed by how much charm illuminates the corridors and alley ways of towns like La Brigue.  While modernization is boisterously apparent in the grandes villes (big cities), these small towns closely guard the remnants of their own histories, right down to the ancient crafts and traditions.

Cheese and pasta (gnocchi) artisans demonstrated their crafts for tourists and interested parties, while gypsy style musicians set the mood with their enchanting melodies.

While the French revolution produced a highly secular modern French nation, it is impossible not to notice the towering testaments to its religious roots.

 Even the horses couldn't resist the local choir concert, with it's intriguing presentation of hauntingly beautiful Bulgarian and Italian chants.

Tout ce passe trop vite!

I find that it is becoming difficult to write these days because I am no longer focused on the recent past or distant future, bur rather what tasks I need to accomplish for tomorrow or the following day, week.  The thought of missing a single second is daunting and time seems to be passing all to quickly. It is exactly one and a half months this past Monday that I first set foot in the high school, and I already have plans for every vacation from now until the end of my contract in April.  I purchased a Eurail pass for Spain but was unable to make the trip, and the pass (still valid) lies glaring at me tauntingly from the corner of my desk as I grow more impatient to make use of it with each passing day. I have no doubt that I will see countless sites throughout Europe between now and April, but I have become acutely aware of the time slipping away as I never have before.

Here is the list of ventures already booked or at least in the works:
December: Lyon: Festival des Lumieres (2 days)
                  Vienna (3 days)
                  Budapest (7 days)
                  Sospel (at least Christmas eve and day)
                  Paris (at least 3 days, possibly New Years)
January:     Sospel: Récolte des Olives (at least 2 days)
                  Geneva (at least 3 days)
Feburary:   Morocco: Fez and Marrakech (10 days)
March:       Spain (two weekends)
April:         Germany and France (two weeks) (possible visit to Ireland or Scotland)
May:        Possibilities: Rome (one week), Turkey, Greece, or Egypt
June:        Sospel, Possible trip to Britain (London, England; Inverness, Scotland)
                  HOME

Much traveling made possible by Eurail passes and RyanAir.com.

While I feel like I have not filled every moment with travel and exploration, I feel it necessary to give myself a small amount of credit regardless. Transportation to and from Lorgues is frustratingly limited, which can be nice because we are not inundated with tourists, but can be extremely irritating when one wants to see something other than the local café (however adorable it may be). I have so far managed to "bouger un peu" as the french would say (that is: move around a bit), by way of my gracious fellow teachers and friends with cars.

Places I have already visited:
Lorgues
Tourtour
Chateau Sainte Roseline
Chateau de Berne
Abbaye de Thoronet
Draguinan
Les Arcs
Frejus/Saint Raphael
Toulon
Nice
Marseille
Monaco
L'Ile des Porquerolles
La Brigue

Au sujet de....

Rap music, horror films, and New York City. Their common ties? They are all elements of current popular culture, of course, but who would have guessed that they are also current subjects of study for high school students at the Lycée Lorgues, France?  I was shocked to find the history of rap music to be a fundamental area of study in more than one class during my week of observation.  The reasoning: it keeps the students interested.  My personal revelation came in the realization that french high school students are not that much different from their american counterparts, and the romanticized notion of french students as overly assertive enthusiasts who eagerly take up their mountains of homework (a notion seeded in my mind by my french professors throughout my years of French studies in the US) quickly evaporated into thin air. That is not to say that my students are entirely disinterested, nor that they have no opinions or desire to express them; rather, it simply means that it takes just as much effort to keep their attention as it would any other students of 15-18, raging with hormones and daydreaming about the next big soccer match or the next time they have the chance to see the girl/boy they admire.

My job at the Lycée (high school) is to "get the kids talking." I am to coax them into practicing, using nearly any subjects necessary to provoke ideas, opinions, and conversation.  In some of my classes, I work separately from the teacher to give lessons that focus on topics I think the students would find interesting, while in others, I follow the subject matter addressed with the teacher, branching off into relevant subjects to save them from the exercise of simple repetition of the facts discussed in class.

Firstly, a breakdown of the French education system, then secondly an explanation of my classes and subjects. My students fall in the  lavender and light blue sections (ages 15-18+).

This is a list of my classes, original subjects the students are studying, and my offshoots:

• Terminale ES: The novel Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
  
• --identification of images of NYC
• --Relation and importance of the images to characters and plot 
• --Studying the NY boroughs: geography, characteristics
• --Purgatory (in relation to a specific chapter with much religious imagery; being as the french are forcefully non religious, the students expressed much confusion with the chapter): definition, relevance to characters, lists of religious words and symbolism in chapter, discussion 
• --Human Follies worksheet: name two follies expressed in the book, write one of your own personal follies (or one you personally observed)

• Terminale Euro: Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino
• --their own personal refilming of the opening scene in the diner, and the "Royale with Cheese" scene
• --extensive work on pronunciation, inflection, gestures, and memorization
• (note: THIS IS HYSTERICAL and they love it!)
• --reference list of recommended famous films focusing on American and British accents, culture, and history (Thank you to those that contributed to my formulation of this list).

• 1e ES: My choice of topics
• personal introductions
• Describe yourself in a negative way; all you faults (can be false)
• Poverty in urban America:
• --describe the photo (young girl in housing project looking out onto distant cityscape); foreground/background, emotional response
• --discussion of welfare and the "Welfare Trap"
• --origins and focus of rap music
• --vocabulary: impoverished, pride, fear, etc
• --Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio; vocabulary, discussion
• --(humorous offshoot) Amish Paradise by Weird Al Yankovich; vocabulary, discussion 

• 1e Euro: Stereotypes
• --Flight of the Conchords: Foux de FaFa; french stereotypes as viewed from native English speakers
• --Discussion of American stereotypes as viewed by the French; breaking through stereotypes
• --internet search: find answers to questions by way of suggested websites
• ----cultural differences between America and France; academic attitude, approach to child rearing, etc; Stereotypes in Walt Disney Pictures: why are they "politically incorrect"?

• 2e ES: Horror Genre
• --word association with "Horror": fear, shock, amazement, death, etc
• --history of the Horror genre in popular culture (origins in gothic novels)
• --games: crossword puzzle, word search 

• 2e Euro: Irish Nationalism
• --Discussion of common knowledge about Ireland and Irish stereotypes
• --History of Ireland's struggle for independence (discussion beginning with 19th century regardless of the fact that Ireland has been fighting for battles between its own tribes or against England since before there was written history)
• --The term "Nation" in "Nationalism": Word association
• --Independence from Britain and America's success in breaking away
• --Irish immigration and pride in America; Irish struggle in America
• --The founding of Chicago (1/5 population Irish 15 years after its incorporation as a city 1850)
• --SouthSide Irish Theme Song

L'Halloween n'existe pas en France? C'est pas vrai!

In the attempt to make a timely come back from my blogging hiatus, I am going to start by highlighting some of the most entertaining recent happenings here in Provence that will most likely interest those of you at home.....

While America's beloved Halloween may have its roots in far and distant ancient European traditions, it should be noted that it is hardly celebrated on this side of the pond, especially in France.  As I understand it from the locals, the celebration of this folkloric, yet commercial and very much American holiday has only come into fruition in France (speaking about Provence here) in the past 3 years or so.  It is hardly a part of the culture, and one can therefore imagine the trail of shocked and confused facial expressions left in the wake of a parade of costumed americans and canadians wandering the streets the night before a somewhat solemn holiday when people buy flowers for dead loved ones. "Mais QU'EST-CE C'EST que ça?!!" That is to say, "What on earth is this nonsense?!!"

 For we North American folk, Halloween can (for some) be considered as monumental a celebration as commercial Christmas, and therefore it is imperative that it is commemorated no matter where one is abroad at the moment of its passing. The following is an account of our mischievous festivities and the forging of a new cultural frontier. I felt privileged to have been present for, and active in, our french friends' first exposure to the holiday of ghouls and goblins. I must say that I was quite impressed with their creativity, and I felt as if I was, by way of their enthusiasm, that much more inspired to explore the event's haunting traditions.

Our pumpkin carving adventure was an absolute success, complete with Lucy's (New Zealand) version of Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Vincent (France) and Julie's (Canada) Monsieur Serge Machismo, my french "jean"o'lantern aptly named Pierre the Pumpkin (complete with beret and cigarette), and Jeremy (France) and Nicole's (Louisiana USA) N'importe Quoi. One might notice the drastic difference in the size and shape of two of our "pumpkins." This is due to the fact that American style carving pumpkins are not readily available, as they have no taste and are useless for cooking, and are thus twice as expensive as their smaller relatives seen here, the potimarrons.  The potimarron is a gourd or squash with the look of a pumpkin and the slight taste of chestnuts when cooked. The skin, when peeled and baked with salt, puts potato chips to shame and wins a perfect 10 for flavor. The experience would not have been complete, of course, without the toasting of pumpkin seeds, and the boys got a taste of the real thing, far better than the lonesome store-bought alternative offered in this country.

No, this is not the food network, nor is it an excerpt from Allrecipes.com, (though I do recommend the site), but the spread of treats to match our tricks at our clandestine Halloween gathering was to die for. It was truly a sight to see--a true testament to the foreign nature of our situation, a smorgasbord of olive and tomato tampanades, popcorn balls improvised with personally imported Canadian maple syrup, American candy corn, and strange little french cookies with sayings that reminded me of candy hearts at Valentine's Day.

Julie's finger cookies were the life of the party, competing only with Jeremy's outstanding performance as the "Fée Clochette" ("Tinkerbell").  A staging of the final epic battle between Captain Hook and Peter Pan captured our imaginations with my kitchen serving as a modest backdrop, and the Crock even made an appearance... minus the tragic ending.

No one was eaten alive... this time.