Dear
readers and future assistants,
February is a month that
just seems to fly by, and not just because it only has 28 days, but
also because the two-week winter vacation here in France takes place
in February. There are three educational regions in France and each region goes on
vacation on a rotating basis. They do this so that not everyone is driving
and traveling all at the same time. In my region the vacation was Feb.
9-24.
For the first week of my vacation, I visited some American friends of
my parents who live in the Lyon area. They kind of let me use their house as a base and each day I took
a day trip to a different city or area. One day I visited Grenoble, which is one of the most beautiful cities
I’ve ever been to. It’s completely surrounded by mountains and a couple
of small valleys. A definite must visit for anyone living in France.
Another day I traveled to the south of France and saw Nîmes, Avignon
and the area around there. It was so beautiful and it was about 70 degrees.
There are so many Roman remains in this area of France. It’s incredible!
Another day I visited Lyon, which is the second largest city in France.
It’s just a fantastic city, but not quite as hectic and busy as Paris.
It has a great Roman ruin museum and many other great sights. And then
another day I visited Geneva, Switzerland. That was a lot of fun, especially
being in another country and still being able to use French. The Swiss
don’t have the Euro though, so that was interesting getting used to
the Swiss franc for a day.
For the second week of my vacation, I took a trip to Italy. One of the
assistants I work with here in Vire recommended to me a tour company
that’s based in Paris. It’s called WERI and its
website is www.weri.com.
For about $290, I was able to take a week-long tour in Italy, including
four nights in a hotel, transportation for the whole week and five breakfasts!
I couldn’t pass up that deal. So I signed up by phone using a credit
card and that worked fine. I met with the other travelers at the rendezvous
point in Paris. Part of the reason that the trip is so inexpensive is
that three of the nights were spent sleeping in the bus. It was a little
uncomfortable the first night, but after that, I got used to it. We
visited Florence, Siena, Rome, Venice, and Verona. It was just a fantastic
trip and I met so many neat people who were also traveling alone, including
two other English assistants, a guy from Barbados and a girl from South
Africa. So that was nice to have other English speakers on the trip.
Italy is just an incredibly amazing country. There’s just so much history!
Even though I didn’t know any Italian at all, I was still able to manage,
because most Italians either know some English or some French. I definitely
recommend checking out the WERI website, because it has other great
tours that are available.
Of course, during February were the Olympics. While I didn’t get to
watch much of them since I was traveling so much, I did watch some.
It was so interesting to watch the Olympics from another country’s point
of view. It was definitely a lot different than how Americans cover
the Olympics, but just as great to watch. When I got back to teaching
at the end of February, I just did a review with my students, which
worked just fine. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions at ericga@uwm.edu
Bye!
-Eric
Anderson