Excellent weekend! Friday I checked out the Musée de Vieux Toulouse, which is a museum which all kinds of maps, paintings and artifacts on the history of the city. I was really lucky because I went on Friday the 5th and the museum was closing on the 6th as it is in a very old building that cannot afford to put in heat, it closes for the season. I also arrived just in time for a guided tour, which made all the difference. The museum itself wasn’t very large or impressive in terms of what they had on display, but learning more about the history of the city was very cool. It’s so amazing to me that I’m living in a city that has been around since the Romans.
I have been giving private supplemental English lessons to a student named Nicholas from one of my classes at Bellevue who is in preparatory classes to enter a <<grande ecole>> or a kind of specialized university in Math and Physics. His exam is at the end of the year and has a considerable English section that I am helping him prepare for. His level of English is definitely low so we have started with relearning the basics. It’s new for me as I have never taught English as a foreign language before, and in fact am not very familiar with the structure of the language or how to explain it to someone as, duh, it’s my native language. Trying to explain the difference between the past continuous and the past perfect has given me a whole new appreciation for people who learn ESL! Fortunately the lessons seems to be working for him so far, so as of now we are going to continue working 2 sessions of 1.5 hours a week until the end of the year. He is incredible nice and polite, he asked my permission before using the formal address with me, and when I asked him about his weekend (in an effort to spark some English conversation) asked if it appropriate for me if he asked me about my weekend in return. Sheesh.
So Saturday morning I had a private lesson with Nicholas. Afterwards, I headed to the Jardins Royale in a part of Toulouse I had not yet explored to meet up with a bunch of assistants. On my way to meet everyone I stumbled upon this fabulous marche d’antiquites. It was 2 very long aisles of giant umbrellas set up all in a row creating a kind of continuous canopy. Underneath, all the venders had not just set out their wares for sale, but created sort of intallation or decorative art in the form of living rooms. They rolled out carpets, set up their dining room tables and chairs, coffee tables and armchairs, armoires and bookshelves. They hung lamps from the canopy, and set up pictures, books, silverware and everything else they had for said so that it seemed as though you were walking through a sea of people’s extraordinary living rooms. What’s more, it was about lunchtime when I arrived, and the venders had set up picnics at their living room tables and were eating their lunch amongst the fabulous antiques they were selling. I’m not talking PB and J’s or tuna salad here either. The fabulous surfaces were laden with massive slabs of artisan bread, tins and jars of caviar and fois gras and open bottles of champagne and wine. It was really incredible. Everything was very expensive, as I said more an antique market than a flea market, but because the vendors were more selective in their wares it was easier to walk through and admire the displays and you didn’t have to pick through it. More of an observable market than an interactive one.
When I finally met up with the assistants they were hanging out in a gorgeous park I had not discovered yet. Even though it wasn’t a bright and sunny day it was warm and the leaves were all yellow orange and red like at home and slowly falling onto the still plush lawns. It was a gathering of many English and Spanish assistants whoI already knew but also many new ones who live further outside Toulouse and had come into the city for the weekend. We spend a couple hours in the park, then broke up for a bit to meet up later for a soiree. Saturday evening I met up with a French girl who I met through the daughter of a professor at my school. We went out with 2 other assistants, Anna and Kettie, for beer at a cool Belgian beer bar in town. We then met up with all the assistants who were socializing along La Garonne river in the center of town. My French friend Ismahane remarked how it was both funny and refreshing how foreign visitors always partake in the activities that the native youth did when they were younger. Apparently drinking next to the river in plain fall is a somewhat juvenile activity reserved for high school students, but nevertheless is a lot of fun. We were an incredibly large group, probably around 30 so we ended up splitting up; some of us ended up in a nearby bar which my friends and I left shortly after and went to a dance club where we danced until 4am! It was an incredibly fun night, I’ve been waiting for a while to go out dancing in Toulouse which is apparently know for it’s night life.
The first Sunday of the month all museums in Toulouse are free so Ana, Kettie, Alberto, Lauren and I went to check out the Musee d’Histoire Naturelle. I had lunch at a professor’s house, one who had invited me for dinner a few weeks ago. It was very, very nice and a lot more casual than the dinner. I’m not sure if that was because it was the second time I was invited or because it was a lunch…Even though I live in a house here and am lucky enough to have more or less all the comforts of home and company, it is still so nice to be invited to someone’s house to share a meal with them on a Sunday. It ended up being me, her 15 year old daughter and 20 year old son. Sunday evening I saw The Social Network at an independent movie theater I hadn’t seen yet, bringing my cultural activity count up to 3 for the weekend. Not too bad.
Monday night was the first night of a sort of dinner club some of the assistants and I have started. It is 7 of us who either live in houses or apartments large enough to cook for and accommodate everyone. The idea is that someone different cooks every Monday and/or Thursday for everyone else in the group. That way you cook once a week but eat out the other 5 or 6. The invites bring the wine and something for desert. Monday’s are usually Meaty Mondays and Thursdays are Veggie, however, Lauren (who luckily for us works as a chef in the US) whipped me up a veggie option of her duck ragu! The whole soirée was really really wonderful, and we all joked that Lauren’s would be a very tough act to follow, as one of her roommate’s cats had just had kittens who came out to play at the end of the meal. Who can compete with a duck ragu and weeks old kittens?? I am up next this Thursday and keep going through menu options in my head…any ideas??
That’s all for now! A bientot!
Linz
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