Thanksgiving turkey: 0, Me: 1

As many of you that know me know, I am not by any stretch of the imagination an expert in the kitchen. Yes, I may have perfected the art of spaghetti with butter or cheese and crackers over the years, but I've grudgingly come to realize those meals just aren't enough. I've discovered that if I just relax and open my mind a little bit, Paris brings (drags kicking and screaming, more like) a lot of that adventuresomeness right out in me. It peeked out two years ago, when my friends taught me how to sauté chicken and make risotto. But these last few months have made me into someone most people wouldn't even recognize back home.

 To begin with, the art of shopping for food in Paris is enough to make anyone want to get involved in cooking. You can't walk down the street and not look in the gourmet fromageries (cheese stores), boulangeries (bakery), patisseries (pastry shops), boucheries (butchers), or chocolatiers (speaks for itself). And the markets with their fresh produce is enough to make anyone crack a cookbook. Once I became familiar with the produce market across the street, I knew that the next step would be buying fresh meat from the butcher, instead of getting it frozen or vacuum-packed at the supermarket. When two friends from home came to visit, I figured it was now or never. So we bought some farce aux tomates, which seemed to be the inside of sausage or something (that was Jeff, I wasn't feeling that adventurous), and some prosciutto. We made omelets for breakfast, which turned out to be delicious! I was finally starting to feel like a relatively grown up Parisian person. Little by little I've built up my confidence, and made shopping at the markets on the next block a regular outing. I have actually looked up the different uses of thyme, parsley, and oregano; I can now tell the difference between a zucchini and a cucumber without cutting them up. My roommate and I even worked up enough courage to have some French friends over for a little dinner party. We roasted potatoes, zucchini, and Brussels sprouts, and made pan-seared salmon with a Hollandaise sauce. Yep, you read that right. HOLLANDAISE SAUCE.

Now that I had tackled fish, risotto, roasted vegetables, the local boucherie, and some simple sauces, the next task was a monster one: Thanksgiving. My roommate and I and a few of other american teaching assistants from our program wanted to celebrate the holiday together, and because the rest of them had small apartments or studios, we offered our apartment up. I, feeling brave in my utter ignorance, decided to cook the turkey. I had heard they were difficult to find in Paris, expensive, and of lesser quality than most American turkeys, but I decided it would be worth it. I stopped at a few places that seemed promising, until I discovered that it was 18 euros per kilo, and not 18 euros per turkey (a 5 kilo turkey is about 11 lbs). I finally decided order a 5 kilo turkey for 40 euros at the butcher's near my apartment. So on saturday morning, I waited in line at the butcher's and then lugged my 11 lb turkey home to begin the preparations. I had consulted multiple google sources, and my roommate and I had compared notes from our grandmas (which turned out to be eerily similar). Although I was thoroughly grossed out after lathering butter all over this turkey, inside and out, the actual preparation wasn't really stressful or complicated.

Three hours later, juices running clear and skin crispy on top, we sat down to actually eat. Our friends had brought all sorts of dishes: homemade mac'n'cheese, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin risotto, brussels sprouts, green beans and almonds, and cranberry sauce (which is surprisingly difficult to find in Paris). I finally cut into the turkey breast, with more than a little trepidation, and was pleasantly surprised to find it white and juicy, just like it was supposed to be! We were all thoroughly impressed with ourselves, and commenced a meal that really felt like thanksgiving, and almost felt like grandma's house. We had a lot to be thankful for!  Especially the three plates full of turkey leftovers... and my newfound confidence in the kitchen. Maybe it was beginner's luck, maybe I just needed to actually have some motivation to try it, but there is no denying that cooking something and it coming out how it was supposed to, not necessarily even fantastic or perfect, but just right, is a pretty empowering thing for me. And it is a great way to come together with friends! I just can't wait to come up with the next big adventure.

The kids I babysit are now addicted to Temple Run

I may have mentioned in earlier posts, but to supplement my income as a teaching assistant I have taken several additional tutoring/babysitting jobs. Working for four different families as well as the 12-15 hours a week I do at my schools fills up my weeks pretty quickly, but I like it that way. Anyways, I love every family that I have worked with so far, though it is fascinating to me to see their differences and thus the different ways they want me to interact with or tutor their children.

The family that I work with most often has two children, boys aged 8 and 6. I babysit them three days a week after school. But aside from picking them up from school and watching them while their parents are at work, my main job is to speak to them in English. They do understand me pretty well, seeing as how they've been learning English in school since kindergarten, and they go to class at the British Council on weekends. So it works out pretty well, and they always surprise me with how quickly they advance even from day to day. They're speaking isn't that great yet, so mostly I just speak to them in English and they speak to me in French (which often leaves me tongue tied, as my brain continually tries to respond to them in French also). Though I am not explicitly teaching them English, this approach seems to coincide with all the research I have read and studied regarding acquisition of a second language at a young age. And I really do see results; it is evident to me that each and every day they improve.

However, their parents insist that I do exercises with them in their workbooks, and make them write out sentences, and basically assign them homework in addition to their full week of school, the homework they do for about 30 minutes after school, and the hours they spend on Saturdays at the British Council.  I must remind myself that I am in no place to argue with the parents on how to raise their children, yet it is hard for me to force myself let alone to force them to do this much structured work. Especially when even in my training sessions we are taught to avoid teaching writing to the youngest learners (6-7 years old, who barely even know how to read and write in French) and we are taught to rely on games or more "dynamic" learning strategies. And thus, after an hour of excruciatingly slow and dull French homework and then English lessons, I somewhat reluctantly gave my iPhone to the youngest to fool around with while the oldest finished his homework... and lo and behold, he discovered Temple Run. Now they can hardly talk about anything else. They keep saying that my game is "trop bien", which is similar to "très bien" but instead of being "very good" it means "too good".  I justify it by saying that I only let them do it after they've finished their homework, and that I have been teaching them the phrases "turn left", "turn right", "jump over that", "slide under that", and "quick get those coins!". That's legitimate vocabulary, right?

This general philosophy seems more espoused in my interactions with another family I work with, a family with four kids (ages 3-9) with whom I work once or twice a week for two hours. The parents are still in the house, so I am not babysitting, my job is purely to expose them to a native english speaker. We play games, we read books, I tell them stories, we play dress up, basically anything as long as it involves speaking english. These children do have an advantage, because their mother spoke to them in English so we communicate almost seamlessly. As opposed to the other boys, the only writing or spelling involved in their play is hangman; I use monopoly to teach them about money; I am reading them Roald Dahl to help expand their vocabulary. These approaches couldn't be more different, and while one is definitely more fun for me (even after all of my education I'm still basically an 8 year old inside) I must make them both work. I guess we won't know which is better until the end of the year...

Watertown is absolutely gorgeous this time of year

I feel like being in an elementary school in the suburbs of Paris has awarded me a really unique opportunity to see a different side of French life, different especially from what I encounter just by walking around Paris, going to museums, going to bars, or anything else. I work in coordination with French primary school teachers, I sit and eat with them for an hour and a half at lunch, and I of course get to deal with French children. The children are adorable for all the expected reasons. Whenever they see me they immediately shout "hello!" and four or five of them will try to hug me all at once. They are all incredibly eager to try out any English words I say in class, and are always repeating whatever I say to the point where I have to hold up a sign with a question mark on it to indicate that I'm asking a question that they have to actually answer, as opposed to saying something for them to repeat. I couldn't be happier to be with elementary school children, their excitement and ability to just soak things up keeps me on my toes and always keeps it fun. I don't envy high school teachers for one second.

What I've also come to appreciate is my time with the teachers, either planning lessons or sitting and eating lunch for an hour and a half. They are all incredibly welcoming, even the ones I don't work with. I love speaking French with them, it is hard at first to follow their conversations when they are just relaxing during lunch. I mostly just nod and smile when they are all talking together, because I don't know the students they're talking about or don't understand exactly what they are saying. At each school they seem to be very tight-knit, despite their different ages and different teaching styles. Especially at one school, I feel like I have something fundamental in common with them, and I have even worked up enough courage to chime in the conversation every once in awhile. We talked about iPhones the other day (and how people are usually either staunch Apple fans or diehard PC advocates), about the movie "Taken" (and "Taken 2"), the election of course, and the hurricane that hit NYC (they were all very concerned about my family, so I had to explain that where I live hardly got touched by the storm).

Sitting around talking with these teachers, some not much older than me, I get a wholly different taste of French people and French life from what I experience in Paris. The atmosphere of aloofness that many people associate with Parisians has no place in this school, with these teachers. They stop at nothing to find common threads with me, and to bring my world into theirs. One teacher who has traveled pretty extensively in the U.S. even knew a little bit about Upstate New York; she said her favorite area is Watertown. Yeah, you read that right. She said, direct quote (translated obviously), "I love Watertown. Absolutely gorgeous". At first I thought she was joking, but then had to turn my snorting laugh into a fake cough. Not a point of view I have a lot to say about, but I appreciate the connection she is trying to make (and that she is the one French person who, when I say I live four hours north of NYC, doesn't think I live in Canada). All in all, I am really excited to see how my relationships with all these teachers grow in the next few months. And yes, I am unabashedly desperate for French friends, which may have something to do with my gushing for this entire blog post.

Obligatory election season blog post

*groan* I know I know, everyone and their brother and then his step-cousin twice removed has something to say about this year's election, but I'm hoping that mine will at least give you something new to think about.

Bear with me while I set this up a bit: during my recent vacation time I had two good friends from Syracuse visiting. One of them (Andrew) just came back from spending three months in Jerusalem, doing something related to the film industry. We had many many interesting discussions about the different ways that a lot of the Jewish people he met approach their own faith, and the demonstration of that faith. In a nutshell, if I understood correctly, he met a lot of people who either were born Jewish or converted later in life who had or have devoted a significant portion of their lives doing detailed research on religion and the history of their faith before converting or in order to better understand and represent their heritage. My friend, and the people he met in Jerusalem, was constantly in the process of debating aspects of the Torah, Jewish history, and how the religion is used on a daily basis even today. It was this inquiry, this passionate, in-depth, probing journey that actually solidified these people's faiths and allowed them to share ideas and explore new facets of Judaism. Questioning, and research, and reliance on fact do not negate their faith. Andrew even told me that many rabbis or students of religion in Israel openly accepted both the Big Bang theory and the story of the Genesis in the Torah, and developed theories of time that allowed the six days of the Genesis to actually represent the Big Bang itself. He seemed really in awe of this espousal of faith, and I was too.

I'll admit, like many other young people (and just people), that I have been severely disillusioned by American politics of late, and I think in discussing my friend's experiences I have finally come to a concrete conclusion of why. In America, obviously largely Christian, a lot of the every day values and morals that may or may not relate to government have been derived from religions precepts. And rightly so, because in the past that was the source of everyone's morality, whether you were Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist. It isn't a coincidence that they match up a great deal. However, what has troubled me and what I find too often goes hand in hand with today's version of Christianity in the US is a disapproval related to inquiry, probing, or questioning. Sometimes it is more subtle than others. Yet to me it seems starkly clear now that whether you talk about religion, patriotism, political stance, oftentimes a questioning attitude is seen as subversive, atheistic, or tantamount to an act of betrayal.

I thoroughly and utterly reject the validity of this notion. I believe, and it seems from talking with my friend Andrew that a lot of Jewish people (and probably others that I don't know about) believe this also, that questioning can be a form of supporting one's faith. I believe that deep inquiry can allow and actually forces people to be stronger in their faith. Then, discussion and debate are not ended by the phrase "that's just what I believe", but the discussions are opened with statements like that, and people seek to understand the nuances of another person's faith or political stance or patriotism, instead of trying to convince the other of supporting unquestioningly one side or another. In America, I see a lot of differing views and opinions which at one time in my life would have thrilled me. But watching people continually unable to share and explore their own or other views in a diplomatic or even remotely civil manner is abhorrent to me, and renders social interaction practically pointless. Let's not be afraid to question oneself, or to find out that one's view is not the only "right" view out there. It seems to me that a much richer personal and social existence is within reach with this simple change of heart.