Goldilocks and the Three Beers

Monday and Tuesday of this week, I took the train into Epinal (the biggest city in my département) to attend the two-day orientation for the English assistants in the Vosges. There were 12 of us in total, which was a nice small number and we all got along quite well.

Orientation was run by Edith and another woman Corinne and the two seemed to be pretty friendly and would tease each other pretty often which was super cute. Corinne would especially poke fun at Edith’s English skills, which are to be fair, pretty bad. At one point we were talking about a lesson plan involving fairy-tales and instead of the traditional one we were all familiar with, Edith proposed the title of this post as a possibility which got us laughing for quite some time. (It really would have been a much better story)

The restaurant we went to for lunch was really delicious the first day, and the second we had to eat from a buffet where we had to choose from an assortment of not-so-fresh-looking seafood and lots of salads all of which were drenched in about three tons of mayo. After having caused some serious doubts about French cuisine, however, they redeemed themselves by serving a most delicious crème brûlée for dessert.

We were all a little sad at the end of the two days knowing that we’re all pretty scattered throughout the Vosges, but there was talk about visiting each others’ towns, and staying in contact for future travel. I hope something works out because it honestly was a great group of people.

Other news: Alex and I went to get our library cards today and discovered that the library is a whole lot nicer than we expected. There’s a walled off garden courtyard area that seems like a really lovely spot to sit and read (especially for when I don’t want to shell out the bucks to sit and read in a café)

St. Dié has kicked FIG prep into high gear. (FIG is the festival internationale de Geographie which is apparently a pretty big deal. There is one country and one topic chosen each year as a theme and this year it is Russia and forests.) On my way to check out the pool, I walked through this little fir tree and wooden cabin-lined pathway that was super cute. Though it does seem a little strange that the theme is forest/deforestation and yet St. Dié has probably destroyed about 30 forests in order to construct this little wooded wonderland.

Lastly. This post might not make any sensé at all. I’ve been sniffing paint fumes for the past couple of days since the internat has suddenly decided, three days after we’ve all settled in, that the foyer should be yellow.

Pictures!

The Internat Team: Tommy, me, and Alex

View of St. Dié from above

Sister city to St. Dié= Lowell, MA = super random