First Break

Today marked the beginning of our first 2-week break from school. Yes, I have been teaching for less than a month and we already have a break. The Toussaint break gives students a week and a half off from school at the end of October each year, something equivalent to a Fall Break and a combination of all the Jewish holidays we have off in September back in the States. To celebrate, several of the English assistants threw a Halloween costume party since many will not be in town on October 31 and since France chooses not to embrace all that Halloween can offer. We invited some of our French friends from around town and had typical fall/Halloween food, candy and drinks including cider, an assortment of chocolates, etc. “Thriller,” “Monster Mash” and other Halloween gems were added to the evening’s playlist to ensure proper celebration.

Tonight we all went to the free, outdoor Joan Baez concert put on by the city of Montpellier as the headlining concert of a month long International Guitar Festival. Despite never seen her perform live before and not knowing a lot about her music, the concert was awesome and she is definitely a great performer. Throughout the 2+ hour concert, the 60-something musician sang songs both old and new from throughout her career, and in 4 different languages at that (French, English, Spanish, and Arabic).

Tomorrow I leave for Spain with a few friends for the rest of our break. We will be going to Madrid, Granada, and Barcelona for 3 days each, so I will be taking lots of pictures and will be back to update on our travels in the first week of November. Happy Halloween!