December 2010

This December was quite cold compared with December 2009 in my town. Teachers and students tell me that this kind of weather was really rare for the region. One night, it even snowed! My roommate had never seen snow, so that was exciting for him. This weather did not last for long. It was like spring when I returned from my holidays in super cold Sweden! I'll post photos of the snow below, as well as photos from other events that occurred in December. I'm still playing catch up, but I'm close to being finished!

I held a debate with my students dealing with current events issues in France and the United States. As you see above, they took it very seriously. Topic number one dealt with lowering the drinking age in the United States to age 18, as it is in France. One group basically said that by lowering the drinking age, not as many people would be listening to Justin Bieber and get drunk off of one drink. They also stated that 18 year olds wouldn't have to drink apple juice all the time, and get fat. hmmm.... Maybe they're onto something? Doubtful. Topic number 2 dealt with the smoking ban in France. As of now, people can not smoke inside public places in France. I love this law, and wish it would be put in place in the United States. Most of my students, who are in fact smokers, said that this was a good law. They felt that it was healthier.

On one of the first few cold days in December, a group of my friends here and I went to visit a friend in Pontivy. We rented bikes and rode them all around this river. It was such a beautiful ride along the river. It was really cold, but good exercise! Pontivy is such a tiny town, with not much to do. However, there is a small castle... and that's really about it!

Here is my classroom! It's always so unorganized. I think it really must be more of a storage room than a classroom. There must be over 40 chairs in this tiny room! I also have 2 TVs, 2 projectors, a computer without a mouse, and 3 trashcans. Oh well, it works! I just have trouble fitting all of my students in the room with all of this extra stuff in the way!

My friends and I took a trip to Rennes, the biggest city, and capitol of Bretagne. I really like this city! There's so much to do here, however there is no beach. We went here right before our Christmas holiday to do our Christmas shopping for our family and friends back home. The 1st photo is the stadium in Rennes. I would really like to attend a match sometime! The 2nd photo is the market in Rennes. It's a lot bigger than the one in my city! I love all of these markets! You can get fresh food for good prices. I really should take advantage of these markets while I'm here. We certainly don't have markets like these in the city where I live. The 3rd photo is just to show the architecture. This is the most popular form of architecture in this region. The 4th photo is a church and the 5th is a really pretty park we walked through. It was still so green and nice, even in December! The 6th photo is the castle in Rennes. The 7th photo is the Christmas market. Here in France, each town has a Christmas market. They really are everywhere! I tried "vin chaud" (hot wine) for the first time at this market! I fell in love with it.  Here is a link to learn more about Rennes :http://www.tourisme-rennes.com/en/home.aspx .

Here is the "snow" we got in my city. This is rare, so I was happy to be able to experience it here in Bretagne. The snow started falling at around midnight, which is when my roommate excitedly came to my door telling me to go outside and look at it. He was so excited to see snow for the first time. The next picture is the day after the snow. It didn't really stick to the ground, and by night it was gone!

                                     
Finally, we have the Christmas market, or Marche de Noel, in my city. I visited the city center the Sunday before I left for my holidays in Sweden thinking it would be dead. This was not the case! Everyone was downtown doing their last minute shopping, ice skating, writing letters to Santa, looking around the Christmas market, or watching the Christmas parade. It was so nice to have been able to see the market in my city, because last year I didn't see it at all! The photos above are of the Christmas market and the mailbox to put your letters to Santa Claus.