French week (20-26th of April)

This week was special at Jacis. The different activities were disigned about France, especially about Britanny, the region of Clemence. Her parents came during this week and participated in the preparation of the activities. Britanny is bustling with Celtic and French culture, so it was great to learn more about this region. It is so easy to forget about regional differences in foreign countries, and if you never visited a certain country you might be under the impression that its more homogeneous than in reality. 

The first day, Clemence held an interactive presentation of Britanny and taught with her mothers some amazing Breton folk dances. A fun fact about the particular dance we learned: You do not hold your partner by the hand, but rather lock unto them by intertwining your pinkies.

The second day Clemence prepared Galettes and pancakes for everybody, and her parents brought cheese from France, and Kouign-Amman. The kouign-Amman, it's a traditional cake from Britanny, and a fitting english translation would be simply: "cake of butter". Galettes, on the other hand, are a savoury version of the Crepe, filled with cheese.

On the third day, we talked about the french movie "Jdemande pas la lune juste quelques étoiles" ("I dont ask for the moon, just for some stars")  by Robert Coudray. And we were lucky because we could ask lot of questions about the work that goes into making a movie, because one of the actors visited us. The movie is a modern Robinsonade about an down on his luck engineer who moves to the picturesque Breton countryside to refurbish a house he inherited. There were a lot of curious design decisions in this movie, which is just as commendable as its' incredible attention to detail.

Friday, Clemence started the production of her movie, starring some teenagers from JACis. The movie was shot at the fun fair in Rainis park. The rides were old and badly maintained, so they definitely gave the more squeamish actors weak knees, but we survived and some especially brave souls even enjoyed it.

On sunday, Clémence went at Riga to participate in the final of folklorist music. She was playing with Piters, and with the folklorist music group of Rezekne : VITERI. Piters and Clemence won the first place in their category and also a special price from the jury. It was a beautiful moment. Congratulations, Clemence.