Vacances de Toussaint

I'm on vacation now!  A week of vacation came as a much needed break.  With my new job, I've been working really hard and learning a lot more about teaching.  My time commitment for teaching is definitely a lot more than the past two years, mostly due to the fact that I have more lessons to plan and grading to do.  French grading is based off of a 20 point scale, and besides that, I must follow a consistent grading system for each language level.  In other words, I have to determine the language level of each student (grammar, vocabulary, etc) and give them the corresponding grade.  I'm sure it will get easier, but I collected about 150 papers before the break and am making my way through them quite slowly.

During my break, I've been slowly working my way through those papers, but also taking some time to enjoy myself, eat good food, find some delicious pastries, get outside, watch a couple movies and spend time with people I care about. 

Yesterday I had some visitors come into town, and we made a day of eating and exploring.  We started with a quick walk through the center of town, with its winding pedestrian streets, and then we made our way to lunch at an Indian restaurant.  It was delicious! I had a chicken curry that was really great.  From there, we decided to explore the touristy thing to do in Grenoble: go to the Bastille.  The Bastille is the fort situated on a mountain overlooking Grenoble.  It is in a very strategic location to look over the valley below.  

We took the "bubbles" up to the fort and were welcomed with a beautiful view.  The surrounding trees were changing color and we could see all of Grenoble.  It turned out to be quite cloudy so we couldn't see all of the surrounding mountains except for one white peak jutting above the grey clouds.  We read the informational panels at the top of the Bastille with information on the Olympic Games in the 60's, the rapid expansion of Grenoble (it's a relatively new city and has really grown in the past 60 years), and even about the role of Grenoble in nuclear physics.  

We also explored the surrounding area and found a walkway on the backside of the Bastille that tunneled into the mountain.  In fact, an entire path was dug through the mountain with strategic windows looking onto the Bastille.  Troops at the fort had created this tunnel to help regain the Bastille if it was ever taken by enemy forces.

Eventually we made our way back down the mountain to find some pastries and warm drinks.  I enjoyed a raspberry tart and hot chocolate.  The time changed last Sunday, so night was falling quite quickly.  We called it a day and made it back home.  It's now time to get back to work soon, but for now I'm enjoying my little taste of fall break.