Disneyland and work

I last left you nearly a week ago. Since then, I've been far too busy to sleep until last night! Thursday and Friday were early work days with four hours each. In one, I had a deaf student with a translator which was interesting but made me feel bad for talking so much... I often had to translate my English to French for the woman to turn into sign langage for the student. Luckily, I also got off an hour early on Friday so I could pack for Disneyland!

PA and I took the TGV to Marne-la-Vallée, the train station right between the Disney parks and the Disney Village with the hotels just beyond. Disneyland Paris is really like a small-scale Disney World--it was a great break from life-as-usual here in Rennes.

Friday night we just checked in to the hotel and enjoyed some CNN, sine we arrived around 10pm. On Saturday, Disneyland Park, the Magic Kingdom-esque one, opened some attractions at 8am for Disney resort guests and then everything at 10am for all visitors. We got to go on Space Mountain twice (I lost my phone the first time :/), Buzz Lightyear, and some Fantasyland rides.

Don't fall off Space Mountain!!!

We stopped in a restaurant for a drink and left via a side door that went into Adventureland. No one was around, presumably because the rides weren't opening for another ten minutes, and we decided to head to the Indiana Jones roller coaster to wait. A woman came up to us demanding to know how we got in because that section of the park wasn't open yet--we explained that we just walked out of a restaurant, but she made it seem like we scaled the walls to break in to Adventureland! She escourted us half-way out and told us to keep walking, but then the announcement for the park openeing came on over the loudspeakers and a crowd of people appeared, running towards us! We joined them and went about enjoying our Disney day on all the classic rides :)

It's a Small World and the grey sky that stayed dry until we left the park!

 Another great part of Disney was the American foods--foot-long hot dogs for lunch and a big Rainforest Cafe salad for dinner!!! A super cute French touch was the Brioche Mickey, a Mickey-shaped pastry with Nutella inside, YUM!

Brioche Mickey and and a café au lait :)

After the long park day and an early dinner, we took an evening nap. We had planned to go to the nightclub in the Disney Village, but it was apparently closed for the season. We had dressed up and walked through the rain at 11pm for nothing :( Instead, we peeked in the still-open shops and then returned to the hotel room to enjoy more CNN.

A bit of a sleep-in for Sunday because the Walt Disney Studios Park didn't open until 10. We managed to go on the Tower of Terror and the Rock'n'Roller Coaster multiple times, see the Moteurs Action! stunt show, and go to a few of the other attractions. Sadly, the wait for Crush's Coaster was always above an hour, so we never tried that. But the big rides we did were satisfying!

After that was one of the best meals I've had since I moved to France: steak and veggie kebab, potatos gratin, and a warm chocolate cake at Ludwig's Castle. Delicious!!! We killed some time around the shops and took our 9:30 train back to Rennes, arriving after midnight! I slept pretty soundly that night...

I worked three hours yesterday, got a new phone, ate lunch, and napped for three hours! I even went to bed before 11pm and woke up at 9 this morning feeling so much better! I love sleeping :)

After-holidays slump...

After the holidays, things just seem quiet and empty without the lights, the decorations, the food, and the people all around you... *sigh*

I was back to work on Monday to see the first of my all new classes. My new schedule is only Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, but I start at 8:30, which is miserable in the winter when it is still super dark out when I have to wake up. The kids are all nice but very shy so far--I miss my classes of chattering secretaries! And since these are all new groups, I can redo a lot of my lessons (or at least the good ones). I've been doing my Tennessee powerpoint to introduce myself, then Two Truths and a Lie and Would You Rather? as icebreaker games. I'll let you know how my other nine classes turn out this week.

With this scehdule comes a two day weekday break on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday night I stayed up late to skype my friend Marguerite in DC when she got home from work (a six hour time difference). Tuesday I slept late and surrendered to my books for the afternoon. PA and I had some grad school crises last night, when we saw that schools hadn't received part of our applications according to our online checklists. But after emailing and calling a few places, we learned that they just haven't processed everything, so the stuff is probably just in a pile of unopened mail still. Phew! Or "pfiou" as the French spell it!

Today I got up early to meet Caitlin at the train station at 9:30 to run errands with her around town. Unfortunately, all of the errands were unsucessful :( We finished off the morning by eating at a cafe called Apple Pie. Owned by an Irish woman, the cafe is supplied by all local and organic products, mostly from her own farm! We chatted with her (in English!) as we ate and she told us about being an English teacher, a translator, and a businesswoman (in European lobbying) and then finally opening her dream cafe in Rennes after having a farm that just sold her bread for five years.

Most importantly, the food: we had a tartine, or sliced toasted bread with toppings of cheddar cheese and onion, with a side of shredded cabbage, carrot, and beet salad. For dessert we shared carrot cake and their namesake Apple Pie which were both amazing! Anytime I need a dessert break and some English conversation, I now know where to go!

So after Caitlin left, I took a much needed nap. Now my back is killing me, so I'm going to do some gentle yoga to relax. Work tomorrow and Friday, then I go to Disneyland Paris for the weekend with Pierre-Antoine, hooray!!!