Thursday, May 17
Not
all that much to report thus far; students have been settling in, discovering
new foods and vocabulary, getting over jet lag, and attending classes.
On Monday afternoon, after Prof. Jeantet had retrieved Annaliese and Theresa from Geneva airport, the group met for a first tour of Faverges. The weather was not at its best, so that we did not go up to visit the castle (we will do that on a nice day). But we toured the main streets of the town, got our bearings, saw ancient buildings and doors (the oldest door in Faverges dates back to the mid Fifteenth century, the oldest buildings to the Thirteenth) .
The photo at right shows some of the group in what is probably the oldest street of Faverges; the rain had let up and we were walking with our umbrellas folded but at the ready ...
In this shot, taken at the end of our one-hour walking tour, one can see that all of the students are walking single-file, umbrellas fully deployed in the pouring rain.
The people of Faverges are not displeased with the rain, as the spring season had been unusually warm and dry, which seemed to bode a period of drought.
The rain of the past week has dispelled this fear, but has certainly taken away from our students' enjoyment of the great outdoors.
Tuesday, we held our first class sessions. The students had prepared some readings and had drawn up some vocabulary lists.
On Wednesday, we met a half hour early in order to visit the weekly outdoor market. The weather was beautiful, fresh snow capped the moutaintops, and many of the students bought cherries and other fruits of the season.
We took advantage of the good weather to walk around and enjoy the sights before heading to the bank where many of the students wanted to change dollars for Euros.
Here we see the group in the heart of Faverges as we approach our bank.
Victory
! One of Rachel's credit cards actually worked
in
the French ATM ! She now knows that she has a ready
supply of cash when she needs it ...
In this shot, Carolyn models an authentic Béret Basque. The vendor also has the much larger Alpine bérets which are useful for shielding one's face against the snow.
We hope of course not to need such a béret in the coming weeks...
After our stroll through the market, we had our first conversation class with Marie-Caroline Boubée, who will be meeting with our students on a regular basis. Past program participants will surely recognize Marie-Caroline and the classroom, and notice that our students, like good Americans everywhere, have failed to close the bathroom door. (Americans tend to leave doors open, Europeans open them only when they want to go through them).
We are making good progress in both classes despite the holiday on Thursday. We'll be making up for lost time with Saturday classes, and will also be visiting the archeological museum on Friday afternoon.
The weather is supposed to clear for the weekend, and we're all hoping that the students can enjoy their free time outdoors on Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
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