The Strike Strikes Back!

Let me summarize the last few days for you...

Monday (night): Finally ordered Speed Rabbit Pizza, the place under my apartment! It was really good--tried a barbecue/onion/ground beef/pickles and a chicken/curry/potato/bacon bits. Both yummy!

Tuesday: Went to Vitré in the afternoon to get my haircut with Caitlin! It was 19euros at a walk-in place... I have some funky layers at the moment, but it looks and feels soooooo much better short again! We spluged and bought 16euros worth of fancy chocolates at a shop we passed and spent the evening eating chocolates and these gratin potatos:

Serves 6

Baking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

• 3 pounds (1.5 kg) Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1/2 pound (225 g) Gruyère cheese (either Emmental or Comté –Comté being stronger, or Beaufort if you can find some –it's very expensive in the US)
• 8 oz. (225 g) crème fraîche (french cultured cream), or heavy cream if you can't find crème fraîche
• 1 egg
• 1 cup (20 cL) milk
• salt and black pepper
• butter (just enough to butter the dish –no oil please!)
• 2 garlic cloves

1. Peel the potatoes. Slice them thinly (about 1/8") and place in water to remove excess starch.
2. Butter a deep oven-safe dish. Peel and press the garlic cloves or chop them very finely. Spread at the bottom of the dish.
3. Preheat your oven at 390F (200C).
4. Dry the potato slices in a clean cotton cloth. Place a first layer of potato slices in the dish. Season with salt and pepper. Spread 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.
5. Add a new layer of potato and proceed as described above. Repeat until all the potatoes are layered. Make sure to keep 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche for later. Finish with cheese.
6. Pour the milk on the potatoes.
7. Bake for 1 hour at 390F.
8. Beat the egg with the remaining crème fraîche and pour this mix on the gratin. Bake for 15 more minutes. 

Wednesday: After some stovetop oatmeal, I took the train back to Rennes to drop off my stuff then headed back to the station at 12:30 to meet Pierre-Antoine for a trip to Paris. His interview was right next to the Eiffel Tower, so we wandered around the park there for a few hours beforehand. The interview itself took only 15 minutes and seemed to go well, but he will not know anything until April!!! After that, we metroed to Opera and my favorite steet in Paris--Rue Sainte-Anne in the Japanese quarter! Had a delicious Oyokodon dinner and metroed back to the Montparnasse Station where there is a STARBUCKS!!! Needless to say, I was content with the day ;)

Thursday: Another STRIKE day! It's about the same things as back in October, but recently, the government said that all retiring professors will not be replaced in order to cut jobs... One prof was saying that next year was going to be all messed up since they won't have enough profs for their current student grouping system. So out of my three classes, I had three students, two, and zero... I bought groceries and then went to the CAF office to sort out why I am not yet getting my housing aid money. I was there almost an hour, and the lady just made yet another photocopy of my salary bulletin (I had already mailed them two). Hopefully, nothing else will be messed up.

I was so happy to have a busy day! I really am not a person who is content doing nothing :/

So now I am enjoying some tea with my new favorite snack of baguette with fig jam and brie cheese. SOOOO DELICIOUS! All of my high-class blog readers should jump on this bandwagon!

Pictures to come when my camera is recharged, lol!

Observation and frustration... Followed by fun!

This blog seems to be turning into a daily journal… so don’t feel obligated to read all the mundane details of my life. I think living abroad makes every little problem or success more dramatic by virtue of it being dealt with in French and by myself. So sorry for the silliness I may describe.

Yesterday, I went to school for three hours in the afternoon to sit in on three classes. Once again I had to present myself, answer questions, and talk a little about Tennessee and Knoxville with Google images to aid me. Two of the classes were terminale (last year of high school) comprised of electricians who have just returned from month-long internships in businesses as varied as home electricians to maintenance in hospitals. It was cool to hear their stories of work and see that they do know some English already.

One class was listing what they wanted to discuss with me when I have my own classes, and one guy mentioned basketball. I told them I watch a lot of basketball, so they asked my favorite team—the Lakers! That earned me some grins :)

After the three hours, I was definitely tired from looking attentive and deciphering broken English. I also had to bring financial forms to the secretary to set up my automatic salary payment—I should get 80% of my salary at the end of this month instead to having to wait until the end of November.

Then, I went downtown to drop off PA’s rent check at his agency and stop by my agency to see the status of my apartment. Now that we had a snafu with the last financial guarantor, the agent wanted to talk to them first. I had to convince her that it was all set up and that she should send the paperwork right away. Hopefully, it will all be done by this weekend; I am to await her phone call to get my keys. It was a rather frustrating afternoon.

I met PA back at the apartment and enjoyed a healthy dinner of delivery pizza (ham, egg, potato as toppings!) and brownies that I made from a packet (denser and darker than ones in the US). Around 9:30, I texted some assistants to go to a hookah bar downtown. So me, PA, Seth, Georgia, Caely, and Carolyn (who is placed in St. Malo) enjoyed Melon and Lemon-Mint hookahs and sugary mint tea. I really love this group of assistants—it makes the stresses of work and paperwork easier to bear when I can joke around with them afterwards. Well, and Pierre-Antoine helps a lot too ;)

Also, I finally found some peanut butter here… in the foreign food aisle with burrito kits and teriyaki sauces!

Today, I am going into work for an hour to just hang out with another English teacher, Laetitia, and see some more of the workshops. Catherine is busy the rest of the week, so we’ll see if I have much more to do.

I’ll also put up some photos of the school that I’ve taken! I’m so lazy about doing that :/