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!!!
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