Another fun-filled weekend here! PA was in town Friday, so we got to hang out. Saturday was Katherine day! She came around 10am to go to the market, and then we ran out to the library and did some shopping throughout the day. It's nice out again, so skirts were welcome! I also had my first galette saucisse and an AMAZING falafal sandwich from Le Mont liban, right across the place from my apartment! Mmm...
Caitlin joined us, and we headed over to Kelsey's for a little asisstants' party. Chatting and dancing with a finish at Le Delicatessen for more dancing :) Katherine left for home, and Caitlin stayed with me for Sunday. We ran errands, finally checked out the interior of the church that I see from my windows, and ate another falafal sandwich. The afternoon was spent in the grass at the park with a million other people because there is a music festival going on in town with two stages set up in the park as well. It was delightful!
Now it's a quiet Monday, still sunny! I'm doing laundry and preparing my lesson on line dances for my students this afternoon... The Cupid Shuffle and the Cha Cha Slide! It's all because I had a dream about teaching them dancing! I figure, it's the last week, so why not?!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Graduation Goggles
How apt that this week's How I Met Your Mother was about "graduation goggles," describing how we become nostalgic about things when we are about to leave them forever. Now, France has not been a cakewalk for me this year, and I really want to go home, but maybe some of the tough times are already getting blurred by the beginning of final goodbyes... And lately, I have been often surrounded by assistants wanting a few last hurrahs before we all scatter, so the champagne cocktails and snacks and dance music all around us is a nice cushion from the dull realities of these seven months of an assistant's life.
So on Tuesday, Katherine and Caitlin came into Rennes for one last dinner out at Casa Pépé, just the three of us. It was DELICIOUS as usual! We also watched a movie and just chatted, as classic slumber parties require. Then today, Amanda and David came over from Fougères for lunch. Sadly, it was too chilly for picnicking, but we ate yummy burgers at Snack My Dwitch Up and hung out, with a late afternoon stop at Le Haricot Rouge for their spring chocolate flavors menu! Mmm, coconut! Hooray for other humans!
But now, again, my apartment is empty and the sky is grey (as it is 90% of the time here...), and the graduation goggles are thrown aside yet again. *sigh*
Luckily, I have a cocktail party on Saturday and an assistants' dinner next Tuesday. But by next Friday, pretty much everyone will have left. The family then shows up May 4th! Ack!
So on Tuesday, Katherine and Caitlin came into Rennes for one last dinner out at Casa Pépé, just the three of us. It was DELICIOUS as usual! We also watched a movie and just chatted, as classic slumber parties require. Then today, Amanda and David came over from Fougères for lunch. Sadly, it was too chilly for picnicking, but we ate yummy burgers at Snack My Dwitch Up and hung out, with a late afternoon stop at Le Haricot Rouge for their spring chocolate flavors menu! Mmm, coconut! Hooray for other humans!
But now, again, my apartment is empty and the sky is grey (as it is 90% of the time here...), and the graduation goggles are thrown aside yet again. *sigh*
Luckily, I have a cocktail party on Saturday and an assistants' dinner next Tuesday. But by next Friday, pretty much everyone will have left. The family then shows up May 4th! Ack!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Weekend in Fougères!
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| Peek-a-boo from Fougères castle! |
Basically, this weekend we did a lot of eating, dancing, and wandering. Friday night we drank wine, ate a platter of cheese and falafal, and went bowling until 3am. Saturday we spent mostly outside--buying food at the market, picnicking at the foot of the castle, napping in the grass with Pride radio on, walking around the castle, sitting at a cafe, napping in the apartment, watching youtube videos together, and eating mussels and fries and ice cream while finishing a mini-keg. Dancing was interspersed throughout the days. Sadly, I did get a touch of sunburn, so I was sore on Sunday morning. We ate a breakfast of coffee, eggs and sausage à la américain and chilled until taking an afternoon bus home. It was low-key but very satisfying--good company, gorgeous weather, and great fun! I was so content in that park on Saturday!
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| Caitlin, Katherine and me--my France clique |
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| Fougères' castle! |
Sunday, April 3, 2011
My last month of working in France!
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!
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!
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 :)
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