The Arrival

1. Our hotel was actually surprisingly easy to find (I don’t know about you, but that never seems to happen when I travel)

2. We were greeted with a downright HOT doorman.  Hands down the most attractive man I’ve ever seen in my life (Italy has a A+ in my book thus far)

3.  Deskboy informs us that our room comes with a Jacuzzi… yay!

4.  Sad time:  Our room isn’t connected to the actual building therefore we will not be getting to see the desk boy as often as we’d like to.

Night One:

Venture out to see the “pretty at night” parts of Rome that are nearby.  This includes Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.  We, of course, joined the crew of tourists and made a wish at the fountain.  My two cents seems to be working thus far

Head back towards the hotel for dinner.  Why hello cute waiter from Naples.  (Is it possible to give a country more than an A+… because the level of attractiveness of these boys is most definitely meriting it)

Umm… these menus are in Italian, well that’s not very helpful (I’m not entirely sure why I thought they WOULDN’T be in Italian). Oh, but wait, the wine list I can understand.  Here Caroline, you take care of the food, I’ll take care of the wine.

Small talk with waiter boy about wine.  God I love pretending to know what I”m talking about… but in my defense I’m getting better!

Fantastic food, lovely wine, and gorgeous men.  Thus far, Rome (clearly) has my approval.

Day 2: Sightseeing

Early wake up for breakfast before heading to the Vatican.  We’ve got a lot to see today!  Sadness desk boy isn’t on duty this morning.  Oh well, yummy cappuccino instead

First Stop: Vatican Museum

Pretty pretty paintings and fun encounters with hungover American boys.  They’re everywhere!  Consensus: Museum = Very Cool.  Michalengo’s room is amazing but the Sistine chapel was a bit like the Mona Lisa, a lot smaller than expected.  I’ve decided that Leo XIII is my favorite Pope.  Not that I know anything about the guy but he had some fantastic artwork done.  Oh!  and the staircase… oh the staircase.  It renewed my want for a spiral staircase in my future house.  I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to manage that one, but I’m determined!

Best part of the museum trip though was hands down, when I had a museum guard follow me around a room commenting on my feet to the other guards because he thought I was a professional ballerina.  Always fun when someone thinks you’re famous

Second Stop: St. Peter’s Square/Basilica

It’s raining again.  (Did I forget to mention that it’s been raining ever since we arrived in Rome?)  There’s construction being done in the square and the line to get into the Basilica (where the Pope says mass) is two hours long.  Can you say NEXT!!

Stop the Third: St. Ignatius Church and the Pantheon

So I may or may not have led Caroline on a mini goose chase looking for the church of St. Ignatius in Rome.  I mean, once we found it, it was totally worth seeing (Jesuits never were ones to do things by halves) it just took us a while to find.  I blame the total lack of street signs. Really people, would it kill you to let us know what street we’re on?

Pantheon:  I was so excited to see this.  I mean, hello!  Roman Gods?  Right up Lisa’s alley!  We get there, awesome architecture on the outside.  We head inside, giant crucifix.  WHAT?!?    Was I the only one who didn’t know that somewhere during the course of history they turned the Pantheon into a church?  Fail….

Stop 4: The Colosseum & Roman Forum

So cool!!!  Matthew would love this place.  Hell, I love this place.  It’s crumbling down, but it’s still got this tangibly barbaric vibe.  You can almost taste the excitement and the fear radiating out of the stones.  It’s thrilling and eerie and wonderful.  History at it’s finest.  Not to mention it makes you want to go home and pop in Gladiator.

Stop 5: Vatican, take 2

So by this time (circa 4pm), we had pretty much been everywhere that we wanted to go, so Caroline and I decided to swing back past the Vatican to see if the line had died down and we could actually get into St. Peter’s.  Wow guys, forget trying to see the Vatican during the day, go at dusk.  There was ZERO line.  Perfect.  So St. Peter’s is just, in a word, amazing.  Up until this point, we’d seen a lot of really awesome churches, but there was something extra about St. Peter’s.  Maybe it was the giant monument in the middle that St. Peter’s bone’s are buried beneath, maybe it was the haunting organ music that happened to be playing.  Whatever it was, it was quite an experience made even better by the fact that about 30 minutes after we walked in, 7 priests started to say mass.  Mass at the pope’s abode = stellar.

Dinner

Alright, so as our time in Rome draws to a close (we leave at 5am tomorrow morning) Caroline and I decide that one more fantastic meal is in order.  Lucky for us, our cute deskboy is back, so we traipse on over to see what he recommends for the night.  Wow, the boy has taste.   There is only one word to describe this place: posh. Upon entering the restaurant we are each brought a glass of champagne (instant thought:  my god, how much is this meal going to put us back — in the end, surprisingly not that much, considering) and some toasts.  Upon looking at the menu, I know instantly what I will be ordering.  This place serves ox-tail raviolis.  Score!  The look on Caroline’s face is fantastic when I tell her this.  Hey, ox-tails are my favorite!  The raviolis are phenomenal as is the rest of the food (and wine!).  This place definitely has my thumbs up.

Mkay, jacuzzi time!  Next time, Venice!

So not that I want it to like blizzard, but these little snow showers are getting frustrating.  I want a snow day!!

So our year kicked off with a visit from Caroline’s parents.  Very very enlightening visit – I understand Caro a whole lot better now.  Our first night out with them involved us getting a 20-minute lecture about the dangers of walking under icicles.  Really people?  It was very clear by the time that they left that they weren’t sure they approved of the influence that Katie and I were having on their dear sweet Caroline.  Hilarious.  I don’t know that I’ve ever been described as a bad influence

SUSHI!!!! – January 15^th, 2010

Yummy Sushi night with the girls.  Fresh rolled sushi (I learned how to roll sushi!) and a bottle of wine?  Perfect.  Although it should be noted that while our sushi was good, it really made me miss Fins and Lullaby Lane Sushi…just didn’t compare.

Invictus – January 16^th

Amazing movie!  I think easily my favorite film in the past three years, which is saying something since I saw it in French. (Why must they dub films??)

Le Modjo trip – nothing all that fun to report.  It was the wrong night so none of our fun crowd was there.  I don’t think we’ll be going back on another Saturday.

I like/ I don’t like – January 19^th

So in class, because that is what I technically am here to do, we’ve been learning how to say “I like” and “I don’t like” and now this week, we’ve gone onto “I love”, “I hate” and “My favorite ___ is ___”.  This has led to three things.

1. All my children now know how to express their hatred for spinach (while not on their vocab list, I felt this was an important sentiment to know how to express).
2. I’ve had to explain to them countless times that, “I don’t like school” is not an appropriate statement to make.  Nor is, “My favorite drink is champagne”.  Yay 8-year-old alcoholics!
3. The love letters they send me are now not only adorable, but grammatically correct as well

Thursday Night #1 – January 21^st

8:00 am:  My schools are on strike again today.  While usually this would be an exciting prospect, it would figure that while all my rides to school are striking, none of the teachers that I actually work for are.  Ie. I shall be walking my 30 minutes to school this morning in the snow.

11:00 am:  I love when my schools forget to tell me that they don’t need me.  Oh well, more time to go grocery shopping/make pie.

11:10 am:  Yay!  I’ve finally managed to find almond extract.  It’s been impossible to find, but it means that now I can make a very yummy almond-pear tart for our dinner party tonight.

12:00 pm:  Marathon baking session.  I’ve got a pie to assemble from scratch in about an hour.

1:00 pm:  Ok, piecrust has cooled, not to figure out how to roll this puppy out.  Huh, I knew I kept that collection of empty wine bottles for a reason.

1:30 pm:  Pie tart is rolled and chilling, mess is all cleaned up, and I’m out the door.  Time to teach!

2:00 pm:  Wow, this school actually has a total of three classes in progress.  That’s a record today!

3:00 pm:  Pie making, part 2

4:00 pm:  There are five children (out of 21) currently present in my class. There are 14 children present in the entire school. Yay!  No point in learning anything new, we’re going to play games for an hour.  How fun!

6:00 pm:  Off to the inaugural night of our Thursday cooking club dinner party.  Tonight’s menu includes croustini, chicken à la Julia Childs, cheese, fabulous wine, and of course, my almond-pear tart.

9:00 pm:  Dinner was spectacular.  Lucy & Agathe have popped in.  We are all currently toasting to my birthday and working on Lucy’s American resume.  If you know of any graphic design posts in the states, I’m all ears!

11:00 pm:  Whew!  Many bottles of wine and a minor freak out that we’d broken Katie’s kitchen (it smelled an awful lot like gas… apparently you’re supposed to ventilate?  Who knew) later and we are off back home.  Thank goodness I don’t have to work tomorrow.

12:00 am:  Man, I really have got to stop talking to people while buzzed.  No bueno conversations.

Le Modjo & Agathe’s – January 22^nd

8:00 pm:  Apèro at Agathe’s house tonight.  Yummy yummy food and even better wine.  New friends and more birthday toasts before heading to Le Modjo for round six… err two…

11:00 pm:  Arrival at Le Modjo, which is conveniently located right next to/under Agathe’s apartment.  Thankfully there are plenty of people inside.  Margaritas all around… yes!

11:30 pm:  Round two.  The bar folk are a bit confused by the invasion of six English speaking girls.  They’re used to two, but six?!?!  The boys aren’t quite sure what to do, although this doesn’t stop the cutie in the corner from sneaking glances.

12:00 am:  Mkay, it’s midnight!  While it doesn’t quite make it my birthday yet, it does make for a good excuse to take shots.  Sadly, we can’t convince Yan, our barman, to take a shot with us, but he does say the shots are on him.  I love our barman.

12:30 am:  Round three?  Four?  Who’s counting?  Hi cutie.  You play rugby?  Of course you play rugby… we gotta find a new bar…

1:00 am:  Mkay, night night bar people.  It’s time for me to go home and majorly sleep some tequila off.

We want Chinese if you please… – January 23^rd

Decided to give the Chinese food a second chance (maybe even try eating it while I’m not hungover this time).  Not horrid, but not Lai Lai’s.  I miss good Chinese food.

Part 2:  Tonight’s movie choice is Ghinsberg – another lovely movie that demonstrates the well-known fact that all French directors/producers are totally on CRACK.  There is a very good chance that this movie, which should have been a poignant biography of a famous French singer, will give me nightmares about sinister cartoon characters with abnormally long fingers for weeks to come.

Allez les verts!! – January 24^th

Happy Birthday to me!  To celebrate, Caroline and I have decided to go watch a rugby game or two.

So it’s raining, well drizzling really, but hey, that doesn’t mean that we can’t make it out to watch our boys play.

35 minutes later and we’re there.  We’re cold and wet, but we’re there and as we’re buying our tickets, I’m majorly loving the fact that everything here has a student discount.

Wow, we know way too many of these boys… both on and off the field.

Victory!!  Off to the stadium next door for round two.  Oh hey, there’s Alexis.

!!!!!!!!!!  They have a concession stand.  Hm… it only sells alcohol and cokes.  Guess we’ll just have to drink mulled wine… shucks.

Victory number two!!!

Successful outing.   I only ran into three of my students – all while holding a glass of wine in my hand.  Not bad really.  One of their dad’s even bought me a drink.  Thank god this is France and even more, thank god these games are over.  I can’t wait to go back home to thaw out!

Wow…. – January 25^th

My kids have officially reached a new level of just dumb.

We’re discussing American money in classes this week, and this is what I’ve learned:

1. The United States uses Francs as money.  à  Ok, this one I will forgive.  These kids grew up with Euros, so they’re confused as to what Francs are.  I’ll let that one fly.
2. The people on bills are the old Presidents of … wait for it… the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.  à  I can’t explain this and neither could they.
3. In the United States, it would make perfect logical sense to my children that I would teach math classes in German.  à  I don’t understand and I really would love to know what I’ve been doing wrong for the past 4 months that my children think that in the United States we speak GERMAN!!!

I officially revoked the speaking privileges of my children.  Until they learn ANYTHING they are no longer allowed to speak.  This lasted all of five minutes.

Yay skills! – January 26^th

My kids weren’t quite as clueless today (thank God).

Shopping trip with Lucy tonight and then wine at Katie’s!!

I learned two very useful things tonight.

1. How to knit.  I can finally start working on that blanket I want to knit
2. How to roll a cigarette like a real Frenchwoman.  I won’t actually smoke it, but I now can roll a cigarette while walking down the street.  Terribly useful, no?

Meet Bob – January 28^th

My kids were much cuter today, and much less dense.  Three highlights:

1. I got a (grammatically correct!!) love letter.  Very very cute.  I only wish I could remember which kid gave it to me.  Why do children not sign these things?
2. I got asked out by an 8 year old.  When I told him that I was too old for him, his response was, “I’m not asking you to be my wife, just my girlfriend”.  Best response ever as clearly, that changes everything.  The kid’s got promise.  I should also point out that this child comes up to my waist.
3. My oldest kids wrote a great little sketch about Bob.  I’ve copied it below.  They came up with everything on their own, I just wrote it down.  Stay tuned; on Tuesday they’re each turning in their own sketches.  I’m hoping for some entertaining ones.

Hello!  My name is Bob.  I am ninety years old.  I’m a man.  I’m small and short.  I like eating.  My favorite food is fish.  I love fast food, especially Mc Donalds, yum!  I love to party.  My favorite artists are the Beatles.  I live in a yellow submarine.  I hate the telephone and I don’t like girls.  I prefer cats.  I have ten cats.  My favorite cat is blue.  His name is Sky.

Yuck being sick – January 29^th

I hate being sick!  Gah, majorly yucky, it’s pouring rain, and I promised Caroline we’d go to the Modjo tonight.  I’m not looking forward to this.

–

Thankfully the bar was empty so all we did was drink a round (screwdriver, Vitamin C please), watch a horrible French basketball game (Limoges vs. Pau.  Limoges won in overtime), and come home.

Disney makes me ridiculously happy – January 30^th

Woke up to a snow-covered world this morning (pictures to be posted soon).  It made it a fairly perfect day to go see the Princess and the Frog.  Recame to the conclusion that Disney movies really do make my world.

Sunday (not so) Funday – January 31^st

Mass in the morning and lesson plans in the afternoon.  Made a yummy chocolate cake, caught up with old friends, and knit.  I’m officially turning into an old lady :/

Thursday, December 3, 2009

7:00 am:  It’s WAY too early.  Not happy.  Snooze button please…

7:20 am:  One more time?  Mkay, sounds good.

7:40 am:  Alright, alright I’m getting up.  Definitely going to be one of those messy ponytail and whatever clothes happen to jump out at me first kinda day.

7:55 am: Fine, so I may have technically worn this to Limoges yesterday, but Limoges is not Guéret so I can wear it again, right?  I think so.

8:05 am:  How is that my ride always calls to say that she’s here right after I make breakfast but right BEFORE I actually eat it… not cool.

8:15 am: Internet, how I missed thee.  Quick check before going to print out the million and twelve pages that I’ll be dealing with today.

8:45 am:  It’s December… that means that I can start teaching my kids Christmas songs right?  Hmm… I’m thinking we’ll start with Jingle Bell Rock

9:05 am:  So apparently school is supposed to start at nine, but I’m pretty sure that nobody every informed the teachers of this fact so they just decide to ring the bell (ie, clap and have all the kids line up… so awesome) sometime around five after-ish.  I wish they did that when I was in grammar school, I would have never been late!  Well… maybe.

9:10 am:  My kids are giving me a lesson on Obelix and Asterix.  I know nothing, which really isn’t surprising, but I’m being yelled at for saying that Asterix is weak… apparently I should have clarified that I’m talking about Asterix before he took some potion?  I’m really not sure at all…

9:45 am:  Class two!  Quiz today – they tell me it’s too easy… which is kinda the point, but I’m glad that they think so too

10:00 am:  We’re playing color bingo. This is the third time we’ve played bingo in the past four lessons, but they don’t seem to mind.  Thankfully, they’re huge fans.

10:15 am:  A girl two rows back is chanting the word cornucopia.  New favorite student?  I think so.

10:30 am:  Jean Macé time… why does it always rain when I’m on my way to that school.  I’d love some sun please.

11:00 am:  Ok, so it should be said that the teacher who’s classroom I work with at Jean Macé entertains me to no end.  He, M. Pinat, is this 70 year old man who greets me with a handshake every Thursday.  I’m absolutely positive that if I was in his class I would be absolutely terrified of him – he’s one of those teachers that you know was teaching when corporal punishment was totally acceptable.  He makes them do lines constantly and just totally strikes me as a true French Maitre.  I adore him, and I’m pretty sure that he’s at least entertained by me.

12:00 pm:  Break time… thank goodness.  Ipod is currently set to the Producers soundtrack…  awesome.

12:25 pm:  Mkay, so I have to be at the next school at 1:15ish, so I don’t really want to go home… but (sadly) my classroom is locked so I can’t exactly go chill out there… what to do, what to do.

12:30 pm:  It’s still raining by the way.   More of an obnoxious drizzle though, that awesome kind that make umbrellas completely pointless.

12:35 pm:  Wander down to the high school.  Caroline’s in class, boo, so there goes that option for entertainment.  Realize that I’m about a stone’s throw away from the rugby boy’s house which means that I’m going to go that way, like way over there, now thanks.

12:40 pm:  Hey!  Monoprix is that way… I can go kill time there.

1:10 pm:  Time officially killed.  Monoprix was a bit disappointing though; not nearly enough Christmas things… although they were playing Christmas music, so point them.

1:12 pm:  Duck into a bakery to pick up a sandwich.

1:14 pm:  Head across Place Bonnyaud towards Cerclier.

1:15 pm:  Spot guy heading towards his car.  I know that walk.

1:16 pm:  Boy comes over to say hello.  Hi Alexis.

1:16 pm:  Am I out walking?  Well, no… it’s raining.  I’m on my way to work.  Oh, you sometimes work in the schools?  I haven’t seen you there before.  … Not today either then?  … You’re on your way to the pool, lucky you.  Want to trade, you can teach my kids and I’ll go swimming?  … Shucks, it was worth a try.  See you some other time then.

1:18 pm:  Remember that on top of the messy ponytail that I’m sporting, I also have been walking around in a heavy mist all day… ugh, why do you always run into people on the days where you really just shouldn’t?  gah!

1:22 pm:  Hey! My classroom is open now.

1:25 pm:  Head to make copies…  the guy who works in the office comments that I must be in a good mood.  Oh?  You’re whistling… oh, I guess I am.

1:30 pm:  Binder check time.

2:00 pm:  It’s Oscar’s birthday today.  That means he’s giving me candy.  I’m pretty ok with this arrangement.

2:30 pm:  I surprisingly don’t want to strangle them at the moment… it’s a rare feeling in this classroom.

3:00 pm:  Mkay, ten minutes to get way across town and up a huge hill is NOT COOL.  Gotta love my dash, run actually, across town.  Very American, non?

3:30 pm:  I’m going to kill these children.  Two boys are on the floor… I’m not quite sure why, and apparently number 3 just flashed number 4… can I go home, please?

4:15 pm:  Last class… thank GOD!!!!

4:55 pm:  I finally got to sing Jingle Bell Rock!!!  Made my day :0)

5:15 pm:  HOME!!!!!!  I missed you!

9:00 pm: Nice glass of Patxaran, some “Springtime for Hitler”, and I’m ready to attack grading… ridiculous, but I love it.

It’s December.  Can we just stop for a moment and contemplate the absolute ridiculousness of that thought.  Unbelievable.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

9:00 am:  Hop a train to Limoges to do some Christmas shopping and pick up Caroline’s carte de sejour.

10:15 am:  Show up at OFII… I’m really glad that I didn’t have to go through this.  Everyone seems very harried… not a pleasant atmosphere.

10:40 am:  Pick up a health manual in an attempt to kill time.  It’s in Chinese and French… I think now would be a good time to start learning Chinese.

11:15 am:  Wow, that took forever.

11:20 am:  Christmas shopping time. 

11:45 am:  Wow, that was surprisingly easy.

11:50 am:  There’s a Basque store.   It has Patxaran.  I may (will) be coming home with a bottle.

12:05 pm:  It’s cold, and raining.  Caroline and I decide to ditch Limoges and head back to Guéret.

12:26 pm:  I love trains that come when you want them to.

2:00 pm:  Stop by the CAF office to make sure that they have all of our paperwork so they can reimburse like ¾ of our rent.

2:10 pm:  I swear, you would think nobody has every heard of a dual-citizen… nobody knows what to do with me…

8:00 pm:  Soirée Taboo.

8:30 pm:  Ok, so if you never have, you should definitely play Taboo in a foreign language… way better than playing in plain old English, this is wildly entertaining… especially when I’ve never heard of the words that I’m supposed to be describing.  It actually goes surprisingly well

9:00 pm:  I’m playing real life Clue next Wednesday… awesome.

5:00 pm:  Umm… So I may or may not have made two kids cry in my last class.  Worst part is, is that I didn’t actually do anything!  I mean, the first kid cried because I didn’t give him a sticker… well, he didn’t do his homework!   And I mean, sure, he had loads of excuses, he had a birthday part on Saturday and rugby on Sunday, but hello, Friday? Thursday?  Sorry kiddo, I’m not buying it.   Anyways, Oscar always cries.

As for the second kid, well, he was having a bad day.  And another kid was bugging him, which meant that they were both complaining to me, and finally, I got tired of it, and told that that I didn’t want to hear from either of them, that they both just needed to take care of themselves and not worry about what the other guy was doing.  Well, Tommy didn’t like that. So he threw his things down onto the desk and started crying out of frustration.  So we fixed the problem, but ugh, I have a headache!

Cute though, Kenny raised his hand like five minutes before class was done and told me that he had a headache.  All I could do was laugh and tell him that I did too, but that it was almost over…  bed here I come.

8:00 pm:  Movie night at Caroline’s.  The Holiday tonight.

10:00 pm:  Umm…  New top-10 favorite chick flicks?  I think so.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

11:15 pm:  Words cannot describe the torture that was the last three hours.  Alright let me back up and explain.  Caroline and decided to be good people tonight.  There’s a film festival going on throughout France about hunger maybe?  But anyways, as part of this “Alimenterre” festival  there was a screening of a movie about farmers, and how, despite being farmers they and their families were going hungry.  The film focused on three individuals – one from the US, one from France, and the last from the African country of Burkina-Faso. In theory, it sounds like a good movie, and in its own defense, it was.  It also helped that it was free.  However, the TWO HOUR LONG question and answer session that followed was quite literally the equivalent of a slow burning hell.  I mean granted, I don’t know enough about free trade to really grasp the entirety of what was being discussed, but ugh, torture. Officially chalking that up as my goodwill for the next three months.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

8:00 am:  It’s Thanksgiving… and I’m on my way to work… there’s something wrong with this picture…

11:00 am:  Ok, new favorite pastime – teaching my kids ridiculously hard American words… such as cornucopia.  They’ll be chanting that one for weeks I’m sure.  I’m very glad, however, that none of them thought to ask me how that’s spelt… but I’m fairly certain I would have spelt it wrong.

2:30 pm:  New favorite pastime #2 – complicated mazes.  We’re doing a thanksgiving fiche, and well, the last maze I gave them was too easy… so this one wasn’t easy at all.  Maybe too hard?  Nah….

6:00 pm:  Ok, I REFUSE to eat pasta on Thanksgiving.  Go knock on Caroline’s door to see if she might like to go out for dinner.

7:00 pm:  Pizza makes for a much better Turkey Day dinner than pasta.

7:30 pm:  Umm… the owner of the pizza place is doing push-ups on the stairs… Hey, why not?

8:00 pm:  Go to pay, tease the owner man about the nice show he put on.  He quips that he’s a Chip n’Dale.  2 points pizza man.

8:15 pm:  Caroline’s mommy sent her Pecan Pie.  Umm… Yum?  I’m a fan.  It is thanksgiving after all.

9:20 pm:  Call home.  I love that people have learned to introduce themselves.  It’s so much nicer to know whom you’re talking to from the beginning.  Scheme with Katie to make sure that she doesn’t end up having to say grace (again).  I can’t wait to see how that turned out.

10:00 pm:  Bedtime.

7:00 pm:  I’M GOING TO ITALY!!  Caroline and I just booked flights to check out Rome and Venice over February break.  Amazing airline sales mean that we’re checking out both lovely cities and coming back to Paris for a grand total of 68E.  If only hotels were that cool…

7:20 pm:  Caroline has just informed me that our hotel in Venice comes with a fruit-basket… I think this adequately makes up for it being overpriced.

7:30 pm:   We’re going to be in Venice for CARNIVAL!!  How cool is that?  Am totally coming home with a kickass mask.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

8:00 pm:  The travel bug has officially hit!  Suite à successfully planning our Italian outing, Caroline and I have decided to explore Christmas in Lyon.  The first weekend of December is the Festival of Lights, and we are going!

So apparently Lyon has the tradition of everybody putting a candle in their window…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_of_Lights_(Lyon)

Friday, November 13, 2009

Weekly outing to le Modjo.  Sadly, nothing exciting to report tonight guys.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

3:00 pm:  I have an oven!!!!  Haley, who was in town to catch lunch with us, nicely offered to drive me to Carrefour so that I could by a (small but functional) toaster oven.  Quite possible the best news of the week because it means that I CAN BAKE AGAIN!!! Can’t wait to go test it out

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

2:00 pm:  Haley calls to say that she’s going to be in town and to see if I’d like to meet up for a drink.  Hey, my bank account’s still showing double digits, why not.

2:45 pm:  Haley swings by.  She’s got a friend from England with her and they inform me that Franck’s (Haley’s PE coach fiancée) class is actually in town playing a rugby match.  Well, that sounds way better than getting a drink.

3:15 pm:  Horribly lost trying to find the stadium.  There are 18 million stadiums here!!!!!

3:30 pm:  Finally found them!  Apparently, Franck’s class is a team of middle school girls.  Actually pretty interesting to watch.  They, of course, kicked butt.

3:45 pm:  Quote of the day, “Football is a gentlemen’s sport played by thugs.  Rugby is a thug’s sport played by gentlemen”.  I’ll buy it.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

6:00 pm:  Nearly strangled a child today.  In class, we’re learning how to describe the weather.  Now sunny, windy, raining, and snowing pose little problem, however, foggy is just a pain in the butt to draw.  Cheating slightly, I pulled out some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge banked in fog to describe “foggy”.  Now, no problems there until I get to the last class of the day in which a child repeatedly tries to tell me that the orange bridge in the picture is the LOS ANGELES bridge.  Now kid, while a grave mistake, I’ll forgive you the first time…  the sixth time though?!  Major self-control to not pounce on him.

Seriously though, who teaches these kids geography?  According to them, England is a part of mainland Europe and nobody knows where Boston or San Francisco are (apparently only LA and NY are worth noting) …  STRESSFUL!!

Friday, November 20, 2009

9:30 pm:  Weekly pilgrimage to Le Modjo kicks off.  Caroline has been talking all week about how much she wants a mojito… she’s practically skipping as we head over.

9:45 pm:  Game night.  Soccer tonight.  Bar’s full of people… awesome J

9:50 pm:  Flag down our favorite barman.  Uh oh… he’s out of mint.  No mojito for Caroline (personally, I’m at a lost as to how she drinks those things… yuck!!)  Go with wine instead.  Our order finishes off the Bartender Man’s bottle of red.

10:15 pm:  We’ve officially achieved a new level of bonding with the Bartender Man.

10:20 pm:  Alright, well, we finished off the red, so what do we order now?  Ask him what else he’s got in the way of wine.  He assures us that he’s got a fantastic white.  Sure, why not.

10:25 pm:  The Bartender Man’s name is Yann.  He tells us that since, after pouring ours, there’s only enough for another 2 glasses we have to finish the bottle of white .  We laugh and assure him that that won’t be a problem.

10:30 pm:  Mmm… Yum.  Caprice.  I’ll have to remember that name for the next time I go buy white.  This is really good.

10:40 pm:  Start chatting with the guy next to me.  He’s from Creuse, but apparently a fan of the Paris soccer team that’s currently getting whipped on the telly.

10:50 pm:  Yann comes over to tell M. Paris that he better be nice to me.  The order is given using my name.  Have I mentioned that I love Yann?

11:00 pm:  Apparently the rest of the bottle is on Yann?  Hey, why not.

11:15 pm:  M. Paris’ team got spanked.  Take great pleasure in teasing him about this fact.  Apparently he’s not worried.

11:30 pm:  Step outside, with a fresh glass of Ricard, to catch some fresh air and chat with M. Paris.

12:00 am:  Another round on Yann?  Two rounds in one night, I think that officially makes us regulars.

12:10 am:  Uh oh, Caroline and I are officially talking in French… and from what I remember, about Shakespeare and Molière…  I don’t question these things.

12:30 am:  Yann comes over and, after overhearing out conversation, shoots us a questioning look.  He should know better than to ask questions too.

6:00 am:  Vacation’s over.  Time to catch the bus back to real life.

Thursday, November 5th

8:00 am:  Real life sucks.  It’s raining and I have to walk to work.

12:00 pm: Ok, half way done, half more to go.  We’re learning how to say how old we are today.  It’s Jim’s birthday, we’ve been telling him happy birthday all day long and counting the number of candles on his birthday cake.  His candles are green and the cake is yellow with blue and green frosting.  Have I mentioned that pretty much all I do with my life is color?

1:00 pm:  I really dislike this class.  They’re horrible and there’s no one else in the classroom with me to make them be good.  Worst part is that within this class of absolute hellions exist my three favorite students.  Let’s face it, I can’t yell at them like the other teachers do… hell, I couldn’t yell at them the way the other teachers do if they were highschool students.  It’s just cruel!

5:00 pm:  Done!!!!!  Definitely time to go crack open a bottle of wine (or two…)

Saturday, November 7th

7:30 pm:  Caroline and I, due to an extreme onset of boredom, decide to go see what’s playing at the local movie theater.

7:45 pm:  Mmm… there’s a German(?) movie called Le Rueben Blanc that starts at 8… something about WWI, it could be good?  Decide to get tickets for that one.

8:00 pm:  First preview is in English for a movie called Mary and Max (which I will be seeing).  Good omen?

9:00 pm:  This movie is weird… like Children of Paradise weird… Actually it’s borderline disturbing.

9:30 pm: And we officially just VAULTED over the whole borderline part of this movie being disturbing.  I think I’m going to need therapy after watching this movie..

10:30 pm: Ok, that is officially the LAST time that Caroline and I pick a movie to see based on the poster.  That was horrible! Like, it would have been good if it wasn’t so disturbing.  How did this win prizes?!  I’m going to go watch something light and happy now to stave off the nightmares…

Sunday, November 8th

8:45 pm:  Sometimes I think I have far too much fun while preparing things for class.  Lots of little things that the kids are never ever going to understand or pick up on, but that entertain me to no end.  For instance, I am spending this rainy Sunday night making up business cards because tomorrow we’re going to be learning how to tell people your telephone number. I’ve dug into my note-cards full of names, all of your names actually, and am deciding who is lucky enough to be used tomorrow.  I’ve got the norms, Yanna’s a doctor, Sandy’s a nurse, Katie’s teaching math at Stanford, all with the stickers to match.  Then I got to José’s name.  Now in Lisa world, I decided that Jose is going to grow up to a ginormous Wall Street tycoon.  Sadly, I don’t have any stickers with dollar signs on them (I wouldn’t, after all, want to corrupt young minds any more than American TV already has).  Instead, I flip through my sticker collection and fall upon a sticker of Jiminy Cricket.  Are my kids going to understand the irony of Jiminy Cricket being the chosen logo of a stockbroker?  No.  Am I going to smile when I get to that one tomorrow?  Yes.  Mission accomplished

Monday, November 9th

11:15 am:  I updated!!!  While I’m sure I’ll do other things today, THAT is the most important thing I’ll do