io mi chiamo Tara

So i had to sneak in one more blog before i left for Nice. I just had to share with you all that i started taking Italian classes this week and they are so much fun! They dont have a beginners year in the high school where i teach, so i hike over to the middle school three hours a week and have class with seventh graders! So besides the fact im american and about 2 feet taller, i blend right in = ) My teacher is from Italy and is quite enthusiatic im learning the language to be able to talk to my family in Milan. ( i hope to take a trip to italy in february) Speaking of trips, i just heard the best news yesturday. I met a geography teacher last week who was in the middle of planning a trip for the school. I told her how much i like to travel and so she asked me to accompany her, 2 other teachers, and 40 students to Prague. Of course i was ecstatic, but with all the paper work here i really didnt think it would fly. Yesturday the teacher told me the great news that the administration has ok'ed me to go! So Dec 11 through the 16 im going through Switzerland and Austria to Prague in the Czech Republic for FREE. The Lord has been really looking out for me !

I taught my class all about Halloween this morning and it rocked. It was just a fun class taking about tricks i played on people, past costumes, and of course Madison Madness. The students heard i was bringing candy for the lesson and so one of them brought me a balisto bar (chocolate and honey)! Shout out to those in madison, have a great and safe holiday! And for those of you who know Mr Pahl, the throwing candy in class works wonders in france too = )

Chamonix -Mont Blanc

This last weekend i was fortunate to get out of this small town to visit the city of Chamonix. Chamonix is known world wide to house the tallest mountain in Europe 'Mont Blanc' which measures in at 4800 km high or about 3000 miles and La Mer de Glace or ice ocean which is huge glacier. The city rests in a valley of the Alps mountains and its about an hour and half drive from where i live now. The scenery was absolutely beautiful because of the winding mountain roads, the view of the snow capped Alps, and the leaves have started to turn colors. (if you want me send you pictures, send me your email address!) Cecile and I spent all day in the area of Mont Blanc or White Mountain. We first got a cup of tea to warm up because due to the mountain the sun didnt hit the city until 11am . We then went hiking opposite of the mountain and the cable car system that takes people up to the restaurant located nearby the peak to get some great pictures. Cecile prepared a picnic lunch for us that we ate up in the hills of the moutain range and as we ate many people were parapenting off the nearby ledges. Parapenting is when you use a sail to manuever down after walking off a mountain ledge. After our hike, we strolled through the town of Chamonix which is in the corner of France next to Switzerland and Italy. A seafoam green colored stream from the glacier runs through the heart of the town and the aritecture varied from Parisien styles to Suisse chateaus. The day was absolutely beautiful and i really enjoyed the sights of the area. My only complaint is how touristy it is and how expensive things cost there! My tea was 3.4 euro or 3.70 USD! A part from that however, it was a great experience.

This weekend is my first vacation and so there wont be any blogs for a while. Im heading to the French Riveria and Monaco on Saturday and ending my vacation with George in Clermont Ferraud in the middle south of the country. Ciao!

so take your cheese and shove it!

There is a time when every average traveler hits a wall. They fall out of the everything is new and interesting honeymoon stage and just about everything makes them cranky and question why they ever left home. As far as walls go, ive hit one but if this is the only wall im going to hit during my time hear then i am quite fortunate indeed. Let me explain what i mean....

I am still working through all the paper work to become a temporary citizen of France. So i have to open a bank account, find lodging, acquire a carte of residence stating im not an illegal immigrant, find understand and buy a cell phone, apply for social security, fill out paperwork for my contract and salary blah blah blah. At first i was tackling bits of it at a time because oftentimes you need something from your job to be able to do something at the bank or something from the bank to receive your salary ....It is unbelievable how many hoops you must go through. Anyway i was doing just fine until i went to the bank to pick up my debit card and they didnt have my checkbook. I walk in that place and everyone looks away hoping i wont approach them. Yea so my accent sucks and you never take the time to listen so therefore never understand me, but i on the other hand can understand you if you are patient! They explained the same thing to me 3 times about not having money in the account so i couldnt use it; well duh! Im not an imbecile! I left the bank wanting to hit something and that experience took a stab at my confidence. Im also at the point where i know i can manage in France, I can live and travel and learn here; i know i can teach english, so at these times when you're down you tend to ask yourself so why stay? I have proved to myself that France is not a difficult task; just lately really frustrating.... I got a bit sick as well this week so that doesnt help matters. I always get depressed when im sick and im alone; its just the worst time for me.

On a lighter note, i have met all my students and have successfully planned and performed classes. ( i say perform because it really is like im on stage) I went out for coffee this week with several of my collegues, and was invited to a school planned week trip to Prague in December. Great things are happening here, they are just being shadowed by the frustrating things. But as i said before if this is my wall i should be thankful because it could be a lot worse. I hope you all are doing well.

Students, Annecy, and a girl named Cecile

Hello my fellow bloggers! How are you doing! If you cant tell by that, im in a really good mood. I started teaching last thursday at the high school. Right away the english profs insisted i teach alone. So thursday morning i faced my first class of students: 22 french and italian boys who are in their second year of college. So yup, they are 19 to 21 years old! I thought i would only have high schoolers but nope, its a bit nerve racking to know im teaching men the same age as i am but ill get throught that somehow. My friday classes are 14 or 15 years old so about sophomore year in high school and much more difficult to control. They were more shy than the other students and so it was like pulling teeth to get them to talk. Even so, i find teaching interesting and fun and quite challenging. They ask different words of vocabulaire that is forcing me to dig deep in the french archives upstairs. One 21 year old even asked if he could have additional lessons during the week so that is really encouraging! I wasnt sure if they would be able to understand my WIsconsin accent. The youth here are really acitve; therefore im sure to learn a lot about mountain sports and soccer this year. I plan my lessons around what they enjoy doing.

Other than that, ive been trying to keep occupied. There is still the question of where im going to live long term. Last week however i met a really nice french girl in the landromat. Cecile just moved to the area for a job in occupational therapy but found it awful. So she has a lot of free time and doesnt know many people here either. After quite a comedy of errors trying to connect with her (because i dont have a phone and had no idea where her house was) we spent the day together. She made me a great french meal and then we drove to nearby town to explore the city. Annecy is a town close to the Suisse border and due to the Suisse influence a real expensive place to live. The town is surrounded by the Alps but unlike here in Ugine there is also a beautiful lake that surrounds part of the city and continues to lower elevations. The lake is the clearest blue water i have ever seen and its rivers run through the town itself, something like i imagine Venice to be like. We walked around the old part of town and the lake as well and talked for hours. It was very pleasant except for the topless sun bathers. I dont know if i cant get use to that!

Cecile is a lot like me. She studied in Brussels and studied abroad in New Zealand for a year ( so she helps me a lot with my french). She has also visited Rwanda and did a internship in the Cameroon. We have lots to discuss and i feel that God is really looking after me. Cecile even found me a place to live in her building after December. So i had a great day and should have a busy week ahead. I be working full time hours now and speaking a lot more french now i have Cecile around.

Take care! later gators

Ugine, France not Oregon!

September 29 I traveled by train and by bus to the small town of Ugine. It is here that i will be teaching 12 hours a week in a high school of 850 students. Ugine has only over 7000 people, there is a post office, a grocery store, a church, a few bars and restaurants and thats about it. I have rented a room here at the school so now my life is quite similar to life in the dorms in Madison. One small room with a bed and desk, and a shared bathroom and kitchen down the hall. Most of the time i eat in the schools cafeteria which sounds bad but is actually quite good. I really enjoy the french way of eating. Its going to have to do for a while at least until i get some paper work down and my feet wet in this town. One really good thing about little towns is how friendly people are. The minute i say im from the states people open up and start talking about their travels there or ask me what it is like.
Over the weekend however i was pretty bored. Its been raining quite a bit and the temperature has been near 60 during the day, so cold for me. I slept a lot and started writing my memoire. Perhaps at some point i hope to have it published. I have meet some interesting people outside of the school like the two boys from Maillot (which is a island of the coast of madagascar so they speak french) and a very nice french girl in the laundro mat, Cecile, who has graciously invited me over for dinner this week. I hope i can find her house, she was super sweet!
The english teachers here are also really nice and lenient. I dont think at this point it will be difficult to work with them. Today (tues) was suppose to be my first day teaching but there is a strike at the school so i dont think ill start until thurs now. My schedule is great; i have no classes on Mon or Wed and on the other days have 3 classes a day. I will definately need to find something else to do.
For those of you still considering visiting, there really isnt anything of interest here except skiing and the snow doesnt come until late december. I am really close to Geneva or north western Italy however and you could swing by here if you are in the neighborhood. The closest airports are Lyon, Annecy, or Geneva. To take the train from Paris it costs a student about 60 USD, and double that if you are older than 26. My vacations this year are Oct 22 to Nov 3, Dec 17 to jan 4, Feb 18 to 26, and then April 22 until whenever (my contract is up april 30) and im scheduled to fly back to chicago the 3rd of May. I am considereing extending my ticket though and going to Senegal at the end of April for a few weeks. I spoke with my family there and they want me to visit and prices are much cheaper from france than from the states. If you would like to send snail mail to me; i have an address now which is (line 1) Tara Carolfi assistante d'anglais (line 2) s/c Lycee Rene Perrin (line 3) 41, Rue Rene Perrin (line 4) 73400 UGINE France

a bientot! (talk to you soon!)

Grenoble and the 'summer camp' for us

I left Paris the 26 of septembre to take part in an obligatory teaching camp in Grenoble. I took a 3 hour TVG train ride(one of the fastest train companies there is) to the south east corner of France. (a heck of a lot different than traveling by train in west africa let me tell ya, they had a schedule!) I arrived in Grenoble at about 9pm and tried figuring out where on earth the youth hostel was and how to get there without paying a small fortune. Grenoble is a town like maidson, there are four universities there; great transportation and night life. I ended up taking the *tram* or trolley as we know it, to the hostel to find it completely booked. I had called the hostel 2 days prior to make a reseravation but the man on the phone had told me i couldnt book in advance and that probably there would be space when i arrived. With this in mind, i started laying into the man at the hostel with my primitive french. It worked though; i ended up with a classroom all to myself complete with my own bathroom and shower. (quite a luxury in the hostelling world)
The next day i went downtown Grenoble to the center of academia for the *internship.* It was arranged that all the foreign assistants in the Grenoble area would be thrown together for 3 days. We were taken by bus to a ski lodge outside of the city where in 1968 the cross country skiers at the olympics stayed and competed. It was truly beautiful up there and the international atmosphere wonderful. France has asked assistants from Italy; Russia; Spain; Mexico; England; USA; Germany; and others to help in there schools this year. There are 180 english assistants in the region of grenoble and there were about 250 people at this lodge from all over. The neat part was the only language we had in common was french. Many people did know some english but usually not enough to converse. I made fast friends in the those couple of days from Germany and England. There is even a girl here from spooner wisconsin! After 3 days about learning different teaching techniques; activities; and adminstrative junk i had to do to live here i was getting pretty nervous about teaching. But then i went to my town of UGINE.