What I did for my Easter Vacation

Hey everyone, sorry for the late post.

I had full intentions of posting as soon as I got back from the Scout rally this past weekend, but I did a whole bunch of relaxing, and now school is getting crazy. But, better late than never. So here we go.

The first week of holiday was full of sunshine and relaxing. I took many "bains de soleil", or sun baths. Easter Sunday I got all gussied up and went to watch mass at Notre Dame. It was incredible! The service was more chanted and sung than spoken, and at one point altar-children walked through the church swinging a censor, diffusing incense everywhere. It was a very interesting way to spend the morning.

The crowd leaving the church. Over the main doors are holes where angels and saints once were. They were chipped off and stolen during the French Revolution. Now all that's left are outlines. 

I really do love this building. In the top right-hand corner of the picture is the bell tower. The green figure leans forward on the hour and the half hour to ring the bell. 

The gargoyles of Notre Dame. As I was wandering around I heard a tourist exclaim "It's just like Notre Dame de Paris!" Apparently they've never seen Notre Dame de Paris. I enjoy not thinking of myself as a tourist here any more. 

A better shot of the gargoyles. Compared to some of the ones I've seen, these guys are positively cuddly.

The life-sized polar bear sculpted by François Pompon in 1922. Apparently the original is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. This fella overlooks the entrance to the Jardin Darcy.

The gorgeous fountain in the Jardin Darcy. 

After a luxurious week, I had some work to do. I left Tuesday morning for the Franche Comté Bourgogne Centenary Rally for the EEUDF (Eclaireuses et Eclaireurs Unionistes de la France). This was the Scout rally that I've been psyching myself up about for the last few weeks. It was a blast. 

Fun in the woods. The theme for this camp was Avatar. The idea was that the Cubs landed on Pandora and made contact with the Na'vi that lived there. I honestly haven't seen the movie. I made things up as I went a long. At first the Cubs and the Na'vi had a huge, intense battle, where the Na'vi took a number of Cubs captive. The leaders and older Scouts dressed up all in blue to be Na'vi. Here one is chasing a Cub.

The Na'vi guarding the "prisoners" they rounded up. Fierce-looking group, aren't they?

The Cubs found dragon's eggs in the forest, and rounded them up. The Na'vi came to barter to get the eggs back. We ended up getting all our Cubs back. 

Our little tent village. There were 75 cubs and 7 leaders. I loved the teepees. 

Tiny frog! The forest was so humid that this little guy had no problems living in the undergrowth, far from standing water. What a cutie.

Another game. The Cubs had to try to break through the Na'vi defenses to round up old scarves that could grant eternal life to the Scouting movement. Here they're getting ready to mount an attack.

Aaaaand GO!!! It was like watching a scene from a movie, two opposing armies clashing epically. 

All our Cubs in a line, waiting for everyone else to show up for a huge "rassemblement", or meeting. We did these a lot throughout the rally. The kids got quite good at it. 

The Scouts joining us. All in all, there were over 200 people there. It was very exciting to see so many people together, taking part in such an excellent movement. 

This is what happens when everyone gets to the rassemblement. Each group of kids has a cry that they do, one group after another. The leaders then do theirs. Some are clear, some are totally unintelligible. All are wonderful. I personally enjoy the "MAXI MOUTARDE" at the end of the Dijon cheer. 

We played a game called "teque"during the rally. I've played it before with the Cubs, but this one for the rally was a different creature altogether. All 200 people present played at the same time. There were 4 fields, and it was incredibly well-planned. This is one of the catching teams taking a break while the rules were being explained. 

The diagram of how the 4 fields worked altogether. Like I said, intensely well-planned.

Chilling out, waiting for a turn on the green terrain. 

I think the pitcher has the most dangerous position on the field. Toss, duck, look around to see what's going on. Hope to not get walloped with a stray ball. 

This was quite cool. The Cubs and the Scouts teamed up in groups of 3 and 4 to build fires in a huge circle. There were about 50 groups. All the fires together were really impressive.

 The fires weren't big, but seeing them all made quite an impression.

A very cool image. 

When everyone had their fires going, a Cub and a Scout got together to light a huge bonfire to symbolize the centenary of the EEUDF here. 

A video of what it all looked like. I explain that there are only 50 fires, but I was mistaken. Each group lit 2 fires, to make 100 altogether. One for each year of Scouting in France. At the end, faintly, you can hear Yannick talking about the meaning of the fires. 

A couple of my Dijon kids chilling in grass that's nearly as tall as they are. Dang cute. 

We went on a 10k hike one day. The kids weren't impressed, but I got some excellent photos. Yannick (the guy who was talking in the video) is the guy on the right in the yellow vest. 

It's wearing a bell! I thought that only happened in movies. Love it.

We were wandering through canola fields. This reminded me an awful lot of home. 

A play tree in the middle of a field. Complete with swings, campfire site, and benches. The kids enjoyed a short break, and we were on our way again. 

This is one of my favourites. Our map was a little off at this point, so we had to take a break while Yannick went on to figure out where we had to go. These three were just pooped.

This little fella decided to come check us out as we passed through a small village by the camp. 

A cute little church in the village. Note the Burgundian tiling on the bell-tower.

A cemetery by the church. I still can't get over the fact that there are so many above-ground tombs here. 

One of my new favourite words is "crevé", or extremely tired. It literally means flat, like a tire. This young man is crevé after our long, long hike. 

Alley-oop! I thought this young man would drop the girl several times during this exercise, but I'm glad I was mistaken. I had to post all 3 pictures so you could see the progression and end result.

The kids had a blast with this one. They made a mosaic of the Scout emblem. I can't decide who had more fun; the kids who got to smash bigger tiles with hammers, or the ones who got to put it all together and watch the picture take form. They all seemed to have a great time. 

Oh no, aliens! The leaders are getting together for a round-robin game night. 

This guy didn't say a word. Creepy as all get-out. Well done. 

The last night, a bunch of the leaders got together to throw a little concert for us. They were really good! 

The last picture of the weekend. Sleepy Cubs from Dijon. Totally adorable. 

That about does it! I came home crevée, sunburned, and filthy, but I had an excellent week. I gave a bunch of stuff to the Cubs while I was there. I had bookmarks, stickers, pencils, and oodles of pins to give out. At the end, 3 of the cutest little girls ever came up to me and presented me with a scarf from the area that their leader had written on to commemorate the rally. I nearly cried. They rolled up and tied the scarf for me, and now it's part of my uniform. I get to wear my scarves back home too. I got papers a couple weeks ago from the EEUDF, and now I'm officially a leader here. Too cool. 

School is getting hectic. I write the DALF a week Saturday, and my oral exam is the following Monday. I'm stressed to the max, trying to study, stay on top of homework and housework, and keep busy to not think about the very few days left here. As I write this, I only have 43 sleeps left. I'm excited to get home and see my friends and family again, but I really like it here. I'm so conflicted!

In the meantime, I'm keeping as busy as possible. This weekend I'm going back to Paris to try to do all the things I didn't have time for last time. I'm planning on seeing Versailles, the Musée d'Orsay, the catacombs, the Pantheon, and a handful of other things. The weekend of the 21 I'm going to Saint-Malo and Mont Saint Michel. The following weekend I'll be busy studying for finals, and then I'll be all done! Unbelievable. It goes without saying that my weekdays will be FULL of homework and studying. Speaking of which, I have grammar homework that needs some attention. 

I'll post as soon as I can after I get back from Paris. Sorry about the delay! Have a great weekend.

À bientôt!