Friday was one of the sadder days of my French children teaching career--three students just cut my class! I was in my room at 11:30 and waited for twenty minutes before going to ask the teacher if I had the right hour. Apparently, she had sent three students to me and they decided to leave campus for an early lunch instead of working with me :( It was rather heart-breaking...
I had another class where the prof asked me to prepare them for presenting texts for their final oral exam. The problem is that no one explained to me how it works, so I couldn't really answer their questions! Ugh. Only eleven more workdays to go.
Friday evening I went to Vitré to hang out with the ever-cool Caitlin and Katherine. We ate spicy chili, made brownies and pumpkin bread, and danced. The next morning was when we ate the pumpkin bread... Then we had to catch the train to Rennes.
At 5, assistant Kelsey was hosting a party to exchange clothes and books and just mingle in general with other assistants. She made a delicious champagne, vodka, and pineapple juice punch, and I brought White Russian fixin's. The offical invite was from 5 to 7, but we all stayed until 11ish, dancing and eating up all the snacks available because we had all missed our dinner! The last group of me, Caitlin, Kelsey, and Kelsey's French boyfriend Steven went to my place for hookah, then us girls went to the nearby club Delicatessan to dance awhile. I think we only made it to 2:30am this time, but we also didn't spend money getting in or buying drinks at the club, so it worked out just fine.
This morning, Caitlin and I are relaxing over leftover spicy chili and fresh pico de gallo with tortilla chips. It's gonna be a lazy day because her next train home isn't until 7pm. So movies, books, chillin'... My abs and legs are soooo sore from the hours of dancing I've put my body through this weekend.
Also, I officially enrolled at George Washington University! Hooray! Come visit me in Washington, D.C. next year!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Little notes...
1. French fashion among the youth, as observed by me. Boys are really into "Official U.S. Marshal" sweatshirts and college gear from UCLA or Franklin and Marshall, the latter of which is apparently marketed by an Italian designer. Girls wear tights, heels, and scarves for all occasions. Girls hair is usually like long and faux-messy.
2. Children don't know how to be silly in English class. My lesson for this week was for students to bring up life problems and ask the class for good, bad, and ugly (the worst) advice. All of them took it so seriously! No creativity! The only smile I got was a girl's problem being "I'm too blond," but the advice was run-of-the-mill "Dye it, don't dye it, go more blonde." Boo!
3. Tiramisus are time-consuming. For his birthday, PA wanted my tiramisu but without the coffee liqueur flavoring--so basically creamy goo on lady fingers with chocolate shavings on top. It took over an hour to make, but it is super creamy due to the whole French milk I had to use ;)
4. My friend Allison is wise. This is an excerpt from her blog:
The right way for you to live simply might indeed be to trim down purchases and go through all that stuff lying around. Or maybe it’s deciding to buy fair trade foods and clothing. Perhaps, though, it doesn’t even have to do with money at all. Thomas Kelly is again quoted, this time about simplifying the way we use our time: “Too many of us have too many irons in the fire. We get distracted by...our interest in a thousand and one good things...simplicity needs to be expressed not merely in the dress and architecture and the height of tombstones but also in...opposition to the hurried, superficial tendencies of our age.”
(I certainly have no simplification problems in France...)
5. I am going to freak out next fall when I am in school and working! I do nothing here!!! I'm only working eight hours this week--three hours cancelled and one was written wrong on my timetable so I missed it--and there is not much filling up my spare time. My fellow assistants and I discuss this all the time here, and maybe the emptiness of time is what I will end up feeling nostalgic for...
2. Children don't know how to be silly in English class. My lesson for this week was for students to bring up life problems and ask the class for good, bad, and ugly (the worst) advice. All of them took it so seriously! No creativity! The only smile I got was a girl's problem being "I'm too blond," but the advice was run-of-the-mill "Dye it, don't dye it, go more blonde." Boo!
3. Tiramisus are time-consuming. For his birthday, PA wanted my tiramisu but without the coffee liqueur flavoring--so basically creamy goo on lady fingers with chocolate shavings on top. It took over an hour to make, but it is super creamy due to the whole French milk I had to use ;)
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| My homemade tiramisu with chocolate shavings on top! |
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| PA enjoyed his birthday gift :) |
The right way for you to live simply might indeed be to trim down purchases and go through all that stuff lying around. Or maybe it’s deciding to buy fair trade foods and clothing. Perhaps, though, it doesn’t even have to do with money at all. Thomas Kelly is again quoted, this time about simplifying the way we use our time: “Too many of us have too many irons in the fire. We get distracted by...our interest in a thousand and one good things...simplicity needs to be expressed not merely in the dress and architecture and the height of tombstones but also in...opposition to the hurried, superficial tendencies of our age.”
(I certainly have no simplification problems in France...)
5. I am going to freak out next fall when I am in school and working! I do nothing here!!! I'm only working eight hours this week--three hours cancelled and one was written wrong on my timetable so I missed it--and there is not much filling up my spare time. My fellow assistants and I discuss this all the time here, and maybe the emptiness of time is what I will end up feeling nostalgic for...
Sunday, March 27, 2011
PA's Birthday Weekend!
On Friday I had a lucky break when a prof was absent, so my eight hour workday went down to five, finishing at 3:30. That night, I went out to a pizza dinner at Trevi with PA, Adrien, Wajd, and Philouze. His 25th birthday party started right afterwards in my apartment with his usual crowd of friends. At midnight, we could all sing him happy birthday!
Shortly after midnight, Caitlin called me to meet at the train station because she was walking up from another party. I had promised her a night of clubbing, but PA's friends weren't ready to leave, so I headed out by myself. We went to Pym's and danced for an hour or so before PA called me--they wouldn't let them in without IDs (which is weird because none of us had ever been asked for an ID in France!). So his group headed to another club, Espace. Caitlin and I left ours and found some nice kids in the street to show us the way to Espace. They apparently thought we were their age, and when I said Caitlin and I are English teachers, one guy said he wished he has a hot English teacher! Haha!
Unfortunately, Espace didn't let them either--I'm guessing it was just too many guys in the group. We went back to my place to close out the party around 4am. What was super exciting is that I could wear my pretty new dress:
Saturday afternoon, PA and I took the train to Vitré for his and his niece Clémentine's birthday festivities. PA ended up with some new clothes and a little guide to Washington in honor of our GWU choice :) We had really delicious pork and potatos with blue cheese sauce for lunch and galettes for dinner. Mmmm!
Sunday morning, PA and I went to his basketball club for a 10:30 game. The last quarter was super close going back and forth by 2 or 3 points... In the last nine seconds, it was 71-72 in favor of the visitors. PA's team ran down court--PA was supposed to take the last shot, but a guy blocked him. PA passed the ball to a younger player who shot and missed. PA grabs the rebound and shoots with one second left--AND MAKES IT!!! A buzzer-beating, game winning shot! It was AWESOME! I was so excited to be there for that game!
Phew! Also, Sunday was the big family party day for 4 year old Clémentine. Both sides of the family came to Vitré for a long aperatif with hors d'oeurves, foie gras, filet mignon, potatos, asperagus wrapped in bacon, cheese, and two birthday cakes of fruit and chocolate! PA's nephew Martin (age 2) sleepily asked to sit in my lap, probably mistaking me for his mom, but then he actually stayed there to play with his truck and animals and chatted with me. I learned some new animals from his book: moufette (skunk), paon (peacock), poulpe (octopus), poussin (chick), hippocampe (seahorse), and coccinelle (ladybug). I like little kids because their vocabulary is similar to mine ;)
Now PA and I are back in Rennes readying ourselves for another week of work/classes. Only 16 workdays in 4 weeks left for me! Hooray!
FYI, we did our time change, so I'm back to six hours of difference from EST.
Shortly after midnight, Caitlin called me to meet at the train station because she was walking up from another party. I had promised her a night of clubbing, but PA's friends weren't ready to leave, so I headed out by myself. We went to Pym's and danced for an hour or so before PA called me--they wouldn't let them in without IDs (which is weird because none of us had ever been asked for an ID in France!). So his group headed to another club, Espace. Caitlin and I left ours and found some nice kids in the street to show us the way to Espace. They apparently thought we were their age, and when I said Caitlin and I are English teachers, one guy said he wished he has a hot English teacher! Haha!
Unfortunately, Espace didn't let them either--I'm guessing it was just too many guys in the group. We went back to my place to close out the party around 4am. What was super exciting is that I could wear my pretty new dress:
Saturday afternoon, PA and I took the train to Vitré for his and his niece Clémentine's birthday festivities. PA ended up with some new clothes and a little guide to Washington in honor of our GWU choice :) We had really delicious pork and potatos with blue cheese sauce for lunch and galettes for dinner. Mmmm!
Sunday morning, PA and I went to his basketball club for a 10:30 game. The last quarter was super close going back and forth by 2 or 3 points... In the last nine seconds, it was 71-72 in favor of the visitors. PA's team ran down court--PA was supposed to take the last shot, but a guy blocked him. PA passed the ball to a younger player who shot and missed. PA grabs the rebound and shoots with one second left--AND MAKES IT!!! A buzzer-beating, game winning shot! It was AWESOME! I was so excited to be there for that game!
Phew! Also, Sunday was the big family party day for 4 year old Clémentine. Both sides of the family came to Vitré for a long aperatif with hors d'oeurves, foie gras, filet mignon, potatos, asperagus wrapped in bacon, cheese, and two birthday cakes of fruit and chocolate! PA's nephew Martin (age 2) sleepily asked to sit in my lap, probably mistaking me for his mom, but then he actually stayed there to play with his truck and animals and chatted with me. I learned some new animals from his book: moufette (skunk), paon (peacock), poulpe (octopus), poussin (chick), hippocampe (seahorse), and coccinelle (ladybug). I like little kids because their vocabulary is similar to mine ;)
Now PA and I are back in Rennes readying ourselves for another week of work/classes. Only 16 workdays in 4 weeks left for me! Hooray!
FYI, we did our time change, so I'm back to six hours of difference from EST.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Sunshine!
This week has been gorgeous! Weather in the 60's!!! I picnicked with Katherine on Tuesday--baguette, cheese, dried sausage, rosé wine, strawberries--and enjoyed laying on the grass in the sun all afternoon. Yesterday, I went for a long walk downtown and took my time running errands outside. Today I had my apartment windows open all morning and then held one of my afternoon classes outside! I hope that's not against the rules or anything... ;)
The warm weather has lifted my spirits immensely! If the entire year had been this nice, I probably would have whined a lot less--and I'm VERY scared about wintering in DC next year :/ Snow is cold!
That's all I wanted to say: I'm warm and happy at the moment.
Saturday is PA's 25th birthday! Send him good wishes :)
The warm weather has lifted my spirits immensely! If the entire year had been this nice, I probably would have whined a lot less--and I'm VERY scared about wintering in DC next year :/ Snow is cold!
That's all I wanted to say: I'm warm and happy at the moment.
Saturday is PA's 25th birthday! Send him good wishes :)
Sunday, March 20, 2011
My 100th Post! Quel drame !
Quel drame ! What drama!
Saturday was chilly again, but Caitlin, Katherine and I braved the wind to go to the Place de Lices market around 9am. I mostly just wanted mini-muffins, and I got 16 to have two of each flavor! I also had to go to the central bank branch and get a bank check to pay for the Paris apartment in June. Oh, the joys of explaining myself in French to strangers...
We also ended up buying food for lunch, and I tried paella, rice with mussels, shrimp, calamari, chicken, steak, chorizo, and yummy spices. We sat in the Tchai House for awhile too, a tea house/café place with the only chai tea lattes in town. Caitlin and I napped in the afternoon while our third went on a rendez-vous with a male assistant ;) Apart from a quick stop at H&M for returns, we were in for the evening and made tacos with an El Paso kit that Ma sent me in the most recent package (eating the leftovers now, yum!).
After that, I decided that I wanted to go clubbing. Caitlin was easily swayed, so I prettied myself up and we went to Le Delicatessan, a club set in the old Prison Saint-Michel with stone vaulted rooms, around 12:45am. Tangent here: French clubs don't open until midnight, but they stay open until 5, 6 or 7am! In the US, it's more like 10pm opening and 2am closing! Ack! We went "early" because girls were free before 1:30, and we got waved through the line by the bouncer who spoke English with us and thought we were cool. He even knew where Tennessee was!
So at this point, the club was still rather empty inside, so we got (incredibly expensive) drinks and settled at a table to wait out the slow times. Two French guys from Normandy came up to talk to us--one was a baker whom I complemented on the deliciousness of French bread, and the other had actually worked in East Tennessee for awhile and had been to Knoxville! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! Lol!
When the dance floor was fuller, we joined in and met some other people who wanted to speak Franglais with us! I suppose they heard us speaking American ;) I talked to another French guy who had worked in Chicago, so we reminiced a bit about the Windy City. It was a super fun night, and tons of people wanted to talk to us! I'm so happy we did it! We got home around 4am, and Katherine was sound asleep on the air mattress.
The next morning, Katherine got up early to go to the ice skating rink, and Caitlin and I joined her after a few more hours of sleep. Katherine is a skating pro, so she showed adept Caitlin some tricks while I wobbled around a few times near the wall. I think my last ice skate was Freshman year of college! People held my hand the whole time then... Sigh...
It was intense but a good excuse to get out of the apartment on a boring Sunday. The big crisis occured when we returned to my apartment and the electricity was out! I, of course, freaked out and called the electric company and my landlord, but then Caitlin found the breaker box downstairs and pushed a button that fixed everything! Hooray! Thanks to her for pulling me through all the troubled times in France! :D
Katherine left us for home and a skype date with her sister, and Caitlin is bumming here with me until her 7:15pm train. Phew! What a wonderful, exciting weekend for the occasion of my 100th post! Thanks for hanging in there, friends!
Saturday was chilly again, but Caitlin, Katherine and I braved the wind to go to the Place de Lices market around 9am. I mostly just wanted mini-muffins, and I got 16 to have two of each flavor! I also had to go to the central bank branch and get a bank check to pay for the Paris apartment in June. Oh, the joys of explaining myself in French to strangers...
We also ended up buying food for lunch, and I tried paella, rice with mussels, shrimp, calamari, chicken, steak, chorizo, and yummy spices. We sat in the Tchai House for awhile too, a tea house/café place with the only chai tea lattes in town. Caitlin and I napped in the afternoon while our third went on a rendez-vous with a male assistant ;) Apart from a quick stop at H&M for returns, we were in for the evening and made tacos with an El Paso kit that Ma sent me in the most recent package (eating the leftovers now, yum!).
After that, I decided that I wanted to go clubbing. Caitlin was easily swayed, so I prettied myself up and we went to Le Delicatessan, a club set in the old Prison Saint-Michel with stone vaulted rooms, around 12:45am. Tangent here: French clubs don't open until midnight, but they stay open until 5, 6 or 7am! In the US, it's more like 10pm opening and 2am closing! Ack! We went "early" because girls were free before 1:30, and we got waved through the line by the bouncer who spoke English with us and thought we were cool. He even knew where Tennessee was!
So at this point, the club was still rather empty inside, so we got (incredibly expensive) drinks and settled at a table to wait out the slow times. Two French guys from Normandy came up to talk to us--one was a baker whom I complemented on the deliciousness of French bread, and the other had actually worked in East Tennessee for awhile and had been to Knoxville! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! Lol!
When the dance floor was fuller, we joined in and met some other people who wanted to speak Franglais with us! I suppose they heard us speaking American ;) I talked to another French guy who had worked in Chicago, so we reminiced a bit about the Windy City. It was a super fun night, and tons of people wanted to talk to us! I'm so happy we did it! We got home around 4am, and Katherine was sound asleep on the air mattress.
The next morning, Katherine got up early to go to the ice skating rink, and Caitlin and I joined her after a few more hours of sleep. Katherine is a skating pro, so she showed adept Caitlin some tricks while I wobbled around a few times near the wall. I think my last ice skate was Freshman year of college! People held my hand the whole time then... Sigh...
It was intense but a good excuse to get out of the apartment on a boring Sunday. The big crisis occured when we returned to my apartment and the electricity was out! I, of course, freaked out and called the electric company and my landlord, but then Caitlin found the breaker box downstairs and pushed a button that fixed everything! Hooray! Thanks to her for pulling me through all the troubled times in France! :D
Katherine left us for home and a skype date with her sister, and Caitlin is bumming here with me until her 7:15pm train. Phew! What a wonderful, exciting weekend for the occasion of my 100th post! Thanks for hanging in there, friends!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Only 20 Workdays left!
Golly gee whiz! As the title says, only 20 workdays left! I will be quite relieved because right now my schedule is a wreck... and it changes every other day :/ It's an odd mix of old and new groups, plus some teachers are (just now after five months) giving me assignments to work on with their classes... It's rather frustrating to have everything change so much in the home stretch--but it will all be done soon!
At least today I had my favorite group EVER!!! The prof gave me these girls for two hours straight to prepare for their final oral exam. They will have to present themselves, talk about their internships (since it's a professional school, they have work placement periods), and then present a document, all in about 15 minutes. Without warning, I had to help them write out blurbs about themselves and their work to turn in to their prof, and then I had to dash to a computer to print articles for practice document work!
Since all of that was boring--and we had two hours to kill--we also played some games :) The girls were pretty good at English and all very sweet. They're actually all going to be preschool teachers! And they actually asked me questions and tried to get to know me! I hope I keep working with them!
What else have I done this week...? Caitlin and Katherine were around on Wednesday, our day off, for H&M shopping, walking in the blooming park, and chillin' in a café with GIANT chocolate cookies. It was almost like being at Panera or ABC.
Thursday, of course, was St. Patty's Day, so I was at PA's apartment party that then bar-hopped for the evening... I was home around 1am so I could sleep for work the next day. It's still so awkward to be at French people parties. I always feel a bit paralyzed--though I understand what is going on around me, I can't move or speak fast enough to take part.
I'm also VERY angry with the New York Times for charging for online access. Jerks! I guess they need to make money somehow, but I'll just be a poor student who doesn't know what is going on in the world now!
PA just left for KFC-ing with friends and going home for the weekend. I'll be joined by Caitlin and Katherine tomorrow morning to go to the market and hang about. Fingers crossed for a nice day!
At least today I had my favorite group EVER!!! The prof gave me these girls for two hours straight to prepare for their final oral exam. They will have to present themselves, talk about their internships (since it's a professional school, they have work placement periods), and then present a document, all in about 15 minutes. Without warning, I had to help them write out blurbs about themselves and their work to turn in to their prof, and then I had to dash to a computer to print articles for practice document work!
Since all of that was boring--and we had two hours to kill--we also played some games :) The girls were pretty good at English and all very sweet. They're actually all going to be preschool teachers! And they actually asked me questions and tried to get to know me! I hope I keep working with them!
What else have I done this week...? Caitlin and Katherine were around on Wednesday, our day off, for H&M shopping, walking in the blooming park, and chillin' in a café with GIANT chocolate cookies. It was almost like being at Panera or ABC.
Thursday, of course, was St. Patty's Day, so I was at PA's apartment party that then bar-hopped for the evening... I was home around 1am so I could sleep for work the next day. It's still so awkward to be at French people parties. I always feel a bit paralyzed--though I understand what is going on around me, I can't move or speak fast enough to take part.
I'm also VERY angry with the New York Times for charging for online access. Jerks! I guess they need to make money somehow, but I'll just be a poor student who doesn't know what is going on in the world now!
PA just left for KFC-ing with friends and going home for the weekend. I'll be joined by Caitlin and Katherine tomorrow morning to go to the market and hang about. Fingers crossed for a nice day!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Brussels, Bruges, and Back to Work
Ah! Here is a quick catch-up on the last few days!!
Wednesday, I took the train into Brussels, Belgium, where Katherine and Caitlin were awaiting me at the station. We visited a brewery of sour gueuze (sp?) beer, ate fries and waffles, and saw Autoworld, a museum of old cars! We found an awesome cafe with the best chai tea lattes in Europe. Dinner was at an Irish pub that I've been to many times, including this past summer where I watched a World Cup game there, standing in the crowd for two hours!
The next day was a leisurely outing to Bruges under grey, drizzling skies. It was an hour train ride, then a long, slow stroll up to the center of town with lots of photo ops. We had tea/coffee, cupcakes, and chocolates at a tea shop. I made them stop to see the Michelangelo, the Jesus Blood, the canals, and my favorite chocolate shops. We also had a yummy pasta lunch and an afternoon Bruges Zot beer. Oh, and I managed to buy a necklace in a funky little shop. Back in Brussels, we ate more fries for dinner, then Caitlin and I got hookah and drinks before hitting the hostel.
For Friday we just met at the chai tea cafe to hang out before our trains left. We all had different itineraries, so I ended up on one train with C and the next with K! And I was back in Rennes by 5:15pm to hang out with PA a bit.
Why I like travelling with C and K: We eat/drink/chill a lot. We can speak franglais. We can just be happy strolling.
Saturday to Sunday, I was in Vitré to hang out with Caitlin--make baked brie with fig jam and veggie soup and watch movies. It was a nice chill weekend :)
Started work up today, and my schedule was very messed up! Two of my classes were not even there... including my 8:30am one :/ For a class I did have, I did Two Truths and A Lie, and this girl wrote "I like scream" instead of "I like ice cream," lol!
Back to the grindstone... 23 days of work to go! Then family and friends visit! Hooray! And spring is arriving, so life is getting much happier around here :)
Wednesday, I took the train into Brussels, Belgium, where Katherine and Caitlin were awaiting me at the station. We visited a brewery of sour gueuze (sp?) beer, ate fries and waffles, and saw Autoworld, a museum of old cars! We found an awesome cafe with the best chai tea lattes in Europe. Dinner was at an Irish pub that I've been to many times, including this past summer where I watched a World Cup game there, standing in the crowd for two hours!
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| Chocolate Mickey sculpture for Ma! |
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| Note the grey skies of Wednesday... |
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| Latte, chocolates, and a red velvet cupcake! Mmmm! |
Why I like travelling with C and K: We eat/drink/chill a lot. We can speak franglais. We can just be happy strolling.
Saturday to Sunday, I was in Vitré to hang out with Caitlin--make baked brie with fig jam and veggie soup and watch movies. It was a nice chill weekend :)
Started work up today, and my schedule was very messed up! Two of my classes were not even there... including my 8:30am one :/ For a class I did have, I did Two Truths and A Lie, and this girl wrote "I like scream" instead of "I like ice cream," lol!
Back to the grindstone... 23 days of work to go! Then family and friends visit! Hooray! And spring is arriving, so life is getting much happier around here :)
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