final thoughts...

So here I am, at the end of my stay in Strasbourg. I have a sunburned left foot, sunburned shoulders, and some beautiful photos to show for it. I got here yesterday at around 2. Checked into my hostel, which is badass, and took a walk around the city. Found my way to the city center, crossing over bridge after bridge over the river, and found the center. The cathedral was massive – extreme example of gothic architecture. Then I walked my way down the waterfront. Found “Petite France” which is the old city, very quaint and cute. The architecture here is so strongly influenced by Germany. It’s quite a change from Tours, which is SOOOO French. I’ve also heard more German than I ever have in my entire life. ENTIRE life. Some of the signs are in German and French too, it’s crazy. So I got myself a sandwich late that night, went to bed early, and called it a day. After several nights of not sleeping very much, it felt good to be in bed. OH! I forgot that I had reserved a private room. Which cost a bit more but was all they had available here. I saw why when at least three or four tour groups of German/English teenagers came in here. It’s been all right except for the 400 euros I paid to the landlord. But whatever, it’s my vacation.
So that was the first night. Today I went and saw the inside of the cathedral – which was insanely gorgeous. So very gothic, so very detailed, the stained glass windows were beautiful. So was the organ. And the Astronomical Clock! Oh goodness. I made an offering, said a prayer for those I loved, and then made my way down to the boat landing. (I’m having trouble writing certain words here, been in France too long) I took an hour and ten minute long boat ride around the city. Saw a lot of the sites, including the buildings of the European Parliament, quite the contrast against the old fashioned buildings… quite swanky. Then I took a walk around the city some more, got some lunch, and headed towards a museum that displays the art of the cathedral. It had a special exhibition going on showcasing the art in the Alsace area and more specifically Strasbourg around 1400. Quite cool, quite cool. Took another walk around the city, stopped and sat on a bench on the river for a while, and then grabbed some dinner. Came back to the hostel, repacked, and I’m ready to head off to Bruges tomorrow, which is about an all day trip. No biggie, I’ve got three nights there. Early train the last day for Amsterdam. But until then, I’m in the land of beer and fries and chocolate. Oh! And Diamonds, apparently they do a lot of diamonds there. I’m planning on going to that museum!

So I have just arrived in Amsterdam, the hostel is nice and I had a Thai meal, which was a bit more than I have been spending on food lately but it was sooooo good. So, now to put in my two cents on Bruges.
I loved Belgium. Really did. I arrived there at around 9:30 on Wednesday night, got dropped off at my hostel by a very nice taxi driver, checked in, tossed my bags up the super scary spiral staircase into my tiny room/sweet locker for my big bag. Then I popped back downstairs because… the downstairs of the hostel was a bar! Well, at night it was, during the day it was a free breakfast buffet for guests/hangout/game spot. So I went down, had a beer, and then started chatting with a local, who gave me some tips on where to visit, what to do, and his opinion on the Belgian culture. That was a cool thing about the bar in our hostel – because it had the best deals on beer, we had locals and the hostel guests going there, so you really met a wide range of people. I went to bed early, and got up fairly early the next day. Took a shower, ate some breakfast, and headed out. First thing about Bruges – it’s all these medieval buildings that have been conserved extremely well. I was shocked. It’s all castles and fairy tale lookin’ things… it was adorable. I was also in heaven because, as my family well knows, I LOVE turrets on buildings, I want to have a turret on my house. Don’t know why, but I do. TURRETS WERE EVERYWHERE! So I wandered my way around, saw the beautiful old cute tiny city with the canals, and somehow landed at the Groeninge museum – which has TONS of Flemish artwork. Oh, I forgot to include the detail that all Bruges city public museums cost… ONE EURO if you’re under 26. Amazing. So I went in, spent a good hour or so there, because the art was really spectacular – a lot of religious art that was similar to some of the French art I studied at MHC, and some crazy twists on the themes of the artwork. Then I wandered up the canal a bit to find the Gruuthuse museum, which has a lot of old Belgian/Flemish/Bruges cultural items in there, to learn a little bit about the history of the city, the people, and of course the culture. With that, I got into the Our Lady Virgin chapel, which has one of the very few Michelangelo sculptures outside of Italy. It was a beautiful sculpture of the Virgin and the baby Jesus, and the cathedral itself was also beautiful. Then I stumbled on the diamond museum, which I had wanted to go to anyways, so I figured I’d stop in. Not as exciting as the other three I went to, BUT it did show me how diamonds were made and how to best judge diamonds, and explained how both Bruges and Antwerp were big diamond/merchant cities. Then I stopped for some fries (I’m in Belgium people – it totally counts as lunch) and on my way to the little fry hut I found the brewery I had wanted to tour (it was weird, I literally fell on every site I wanted to see, without even really looking at the map). So I ate my fries and got a ticket to see the inside of the only remaining brewery in Bruges (there used to be between 30 and 35). Its still family owned, and has won the world beer cup in California two years running. Congrats Haalf Moon brewery. I wound up going with the French section on the tour, because there were about 12 of us, and about 8 million English speakers. We were then given a free beer at their bar, and I sat down with these older French people and had a nice chat before returning to my hostel, where I found three guys from Singapore who had stayed in my room the night before. I sat down with them in the bar (ordered a coke, after the beer at the brewery I figured I’d had enough, considering it was before 4 in the afternoon) and talked with them for a while. They’ve had some crazy travel adventures. Then this lovely Australian girl named Ziggy sat down next to us, and we got to talking. She then “adopted” me as her travel buddy, which was absolutely wonderful. I went off to get dinner, came back and met her, joined her for a beer and a game of scrabble in the bar later. Another local who wanted to practice his English joined us in our game, and a nice guy from Kent, England named Jay, who was also traveling alone. Turns out the two of them were coming to Amsterdam too. So there you have it… we are now a traveling crew of three J Oh and I won scrabble. The next day, Ziggy and I went to Gent, to see another town and to check out their medieval castle, complete with extremely graphic torture museum. We headed back to Bruges to see the new movie with Colin Farrell in it, called… “In Bruges”. We felt we really HAD to see the movie. It was required. So we saw it in this old theater (literally, a theater) and quite liked it. It was cool because we had just done our sightseeing of Bruges, and we could see all those sites in the movie! Then it was back to the hostel to pack and get ready to travel today. I got up early, got the bus, took the train, and landed here in Amsterdam. Ziggy and Jay will be arriving shortly, and I think we will begin our sightseeing tomorrow.



So, when I arrived in Amsterdam, it was ridiculously hot and hazy and insane. I was sweating buckets. Took a walk around, took me a lot longer to find my hostel than I thought, and then I went and got my first Thai food in a long time. Was amazing… Ziggy arrived, and we went out for a night on the town. Wound up at a bar which was manned by two crazy old ladies, somehow we stayed out til 5am, we still don’t quite know how. The next day, we went to the Anne Frank house – the weather was much different, rainy and cold and grey. After the Anne Frank house we spent the afternoon at a café eating cookies and drinking tea, while playing various card games and hangman. Went out for Indian, called it a night. The next day, we went with a friend of ours from Bruges named Zoe to the torture museum and to an art gallery called foam, and we had bagel sandwiches for lunch! Then ziggy and I headed to the Van Gogh museum, which was quite wonderful as far as museums go. Then it was still rainy and crappy, so we decided to see a movie, we saw Iron Man. Not a bad flick. Then Italian dinner… then bedtime. The next day, which was yesterday, we went to the… DOCTORS! Because Hilary “I can’t eat fresh fruit” Park decided to try a freshly made mango juice, and broke out in hives. Must say, it’s quite a sexy look when you’re traveling and taking off jackets in airports – people must think I have leprosy or something. And then we took a walk around the flower market, hung out at my hostel, took it easy for the day.

The funny thing about Amsterdam is that there are parts that are so stereotypically Amsterdam – all cute and quaint with little canals and cute old buildings, and then you have the main streets which reminded me a bit of Vegas with the casinos and the lights and the flashing and the amount of people. I liked Amsterdam well enough – I really did. I had a good time and it was fun to see the sights and be naughty and walk around the Red Light district, but I’m not sure if it’s someplace I feel I HAVE to go back and see. I’d willingly go back to Belgium, check out Antwerp and Brussels, and of course I’d go back to France (there’s so much left there that I want to do). Maybe I can try another city in Holland, one that’s not quite so reputable and see if I enjoy it more. I realize this Amsterdam update is shorter than the others – but I’m not feeling overly inspired. This could be due to the fact that I had an awful experience leaving this morning – my hostel is divided into separate buildings, and I was staying in one that wasn’t attached to the main desk. The building that is attached is supposed to open at 6am. I get down there at 645, and there’s nobody. Ring the bell three times, wait until 715, and leave. They have my luggage, I have my key. I wrote them a SCATHING e-mail explaining that if they are under video surveillance like they claim to be, then they can watch and see that I was there, and whoever was supposed to be working, wasn’t. Then the airport – was just insanity. I waited in this long line to do a self check-in to get my boarding passes, but still had to go check my bags at a desk. There was no line system, it was literally like corralling sheep. I hated it. And I was already cranky due to the experience in the hostel this morning.

So here I am, waiting to get to Boston from Dublin (love this airport – and the Irish people, so friendly!) final thoughts on this whole thing? And I mean whole as in starting September 20, 2007, when I arrived in Paris and met Katie to go to this city called Tours, where I’d spend nine months of my life getting to know some of the most amazing people and coming face to face with some incredible situations. Simone once asked me “Did you ever, ever in your life think that you’d be spending Easter of 2008 in the house of a guy from La Réunion, celebrating in the Italian fashion, with Italians and French people?” I looked him straight in the face and said no, but that I saw no problem with it.

I don’t think I ever would have imagined myself being where I am today. Ever. I would have never imagined myself as the type of girl to run off to France, get a job, move in with a stranger, and basically put myself into as many awkward and complicated situations as possible. I never thought I was the type of person who would have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, and REALLY meet them, get to know them, be friends with them, visit them, create a real friendship with them. I never thought I would go back to teaching. Nor did I think I would ever deal with this age group (because honestly, from age 5-15 I can do without ). But I was here, I taught my kids, I tested them, I graded them. I was here, I reached out, met new people, and fell in love with them. And the whole time I was here it was one turn after another, one moment after another, none of them the same, none of them really predictable.

I said it before, I’ll say it again. This trip has made me reach into myself and find parts of myself that I never knew existed. I reacted in ways I never thought possible to situations I always thought I’d be prepared for.

But I grew. I grew so much. I taught, tested, and graded my kids, and all the while I was running up against some of the biggest, best, and scariest lessons I had dealt with in my life. And I’m a greater person for it.

I know I’ve changed, I’ve shifted some. But it feels good. It feels more… me.

ohhhh june

this has been the week of good-byes.
four people in seven days. it's been rough. i cried at the departure of franck. the boy from la reunion (see him being insane on right) on wednesday night. it's hard to imagine him being literally on the other side of the world over the summer, when he was just living on the other side of the city center from me for 9 months. so i stood in his doorway holding back tears for about 10-15 minutes (i had to leave early due to the teaching commitment the next morning). one of the hardest good-byes i've ever had to say. franck, if you're reading this - i'm going to miss you like crazy. it's strange to meet people you grow to love so much, and leave them, not knowing when you're going to see them again. and it's not like it was in college, where you think "oh, she'll be in ny, i'll be in vt, we'll see each other". this guy, for example, lives between madagascar and india on a small island in the indian ocean. that's really, really far away. but, he'll be back in france during the school year, and maybe i can convince him and the others to come for a visit in april. or, if i save some money, i could come back and do a europe tour of my own, visiting the frenchies and the italians, as a sort of reunion.
anyways. after franck left on thursday, maria left friday, barbara on saturday, and simo left today. it was day after day after day of good-byes. thursday night, we got together at maria and simo's for one last all together good-bye drink some absinthe (i'm not sure how i feel about absinthe yet... the flavor is soooo pungent) take photos, and partake in ridiculousness as per usual. the night ended in mass hugs, as we all realized how different our lives are going to be after we leave this little utopia (yes, i'm saying utopia... be shocked) to which we've become so accustomed. see image at left for mass italy/USA hug. last night when we got together to grab a beer with simo before he headed back to italia, we realized what a small group we have now, and how empty it feels. the voids, the voids are definitely there. it's bizarre to think the italians are back in italy, and i'm not going near them, i'm headed across the atlantic.
last night we said good-bye to simo, which was tough. i never want to stop hugging these people when i say good-bye to them. it doesn't help that they're all so wonderful and saying such wonderful things. the friendship there is so genuine. as simone said last night "you are my family." which is so true. here, in this strange experience far from home, my family became this strange mix of people, coming from all over the world. and now my family is starting to scatter, and the roots that i put down are starting to get torn up (this entire trip has been about rattling my cage huh?). so that's starting to hit. it's such a bittersweet feeling. i am so happy to have met these people, so happy to have shared memories with them and shared moments and created these friendships, some of which i feel have been there for years. and it's so sad to leave them, to have them not be a part of my daily life, to not have them a phone call away to grab a drink, or stop by their apartments on my way home from work to vent about my children and their antics.
oh there's an ache in my heart again, and it's not for home. because now, i know i'm going home. it's just a few weeks around the corner. but my family, my international, crazy, adventurous, caring, loving, beautiful family is spreading out, and who knows when i'll see them again.

i love you all.

ohhh la vache

my desire to go home grows every day.
despite the fact that i love the people here very much, i love my apartment, and school is honestly going smoothly
i find myself yearning for my girls, my family, my dog, and all familiar things.
my itunes is on shuffle, and there's christmas music on there. i can't listen to christmas music when it's not christmas time to begin with, but when the music from the charlie brown christmas comes on, my heart HURTS. i was talking with a friend online just now, and meant to write the word "him" and i wrote "home" right as the alternate take of greensleves from charlie brown christmas came on.
wow.
it's almost bad enough that i want to change my flight.
almost. i should travel some, i really should. so i will.

i've just never stopped feeling like a stranger. which is not odd - i am a stranger here. i am an american girl living in france. but i've never felt fully welcomed. my schools have done a somewhat decent job. some of the teachers much more than others. my friends, yes they were welcoming, but the majority of them came from somewhere other than france, and i think we bonded over being strangers in this land.
as i said before - i've never had an experience where i have felt so strongly about so many things. which is good - it rattled my cage, changed me as a person, and helped me grow. but i'm ready to relax, to let down my guard, to not feel the need to always defend my people or my country or even myself. to get hugs and not bisous. to make casserole in an oven and not on the stove top. to watch tv with commercials in the middle. to see a baseball game. to drink a long trail beer. to laugh and be loud and have it be okay. to be respected. to not feel an ache almost every day when i get those lovely reminders that i don't quite fit here.

but enough with the sadness - three more weeks of teaching then i'm out of here and back stateside july 9. yesssss

so close.........

so it's now june 6th. things here in france are going alright... not too much to report. people are slowly starting to leave, this upcoming week is going to be the worst. franck wednesday, maria friday, barbara saturday, simone sunday. yikes!
i've got three more weeks of teaching left. which is great. then a quick trip to various destinations... then home to vt on july 9.

in august, i move into a close friend's apartment with her in brookline. i'm excited for that. still looking for jobs.

i'm mentally done with my job, which is not helpful. i'm enjoying the time left here with everyone that i've grown to love...

i hosted two girls from quebec last weekend, they are members of couchsurfing.com as well. they were sweet, just finished their studies in journalism.

there was a free maroon 5 concert last night, simo, emilie, franck, elise and i went. i've included some pictures here.

i'll do a longer post later on kiddos...

gros bisous.

oh lesson plans, i don't want to do them

so i'm finding everything else to do. i also have to correct and insane amount of tests.
however, it feels later in the day than it actually is. this is because i woke up at 645 this morning to say good bye to bryan, send him off at the train station with the italians, frenchies, and his yeminite roommate. so yes, another american has left. and here we are.
i've recently discovered that the test i thought i HAD to give was OPTIONAL. so i did it with one class, and my other classes will be doing other things instead. i don't want to correct those tests, so i'm not. i'm posting to my blog.

hmmmm what to say? well let's see.

i have found a place to live, i'll be in brookline with ms. underdahl. MHC reunion time what?
so that's good. i've seen the apartment, i know it's big and nice and it has a porch, she's got a kitty cat, and i'll have my own room :)

i'm working on planning out my trip at the end of the year. i've been sending out requests to couchsurf with people. however, i'm getting back a lot of "sorry we're already hosting" responses. which is making me sad. couchsurfing, for those of you who don't know - is a program that people sign onto, where they agree to host people in their apartments, on their couches or in spare bedrooms, and in exchange they are hosted by others. it's cheaper than a hostel, and nice when you're traveling alone because you've got someone there who knows the place, speaks the language, and can point you in the direction you want to go. it's safe, verified, funded, blah blah. but, if i don't have places ironed out by the end of this week or next week, i'm gonna have to go the hostel route. which is worrisome too because it's so close to when i'll be traveling. i may have to make some changes to my itinerary. oh well. we shall see.

we went out for a brazilian dinner last night in honor of bryan - ohhhhhh my goodness the food was AMAZING. meat grilled and barbequed and just wonderfulness. side dishes that were incredible, great company, live music, dancing, brightly colored walls, it was fantastic.

of course - we were all sad at bryan's departure, it's the time of year where everyone is leaving. whitney, bryan, domenica, alyson, jen, all the other american assistants, it's getting crazy over here. i may lose my mind!

but, on that note. i may go make myself useful and do something related to school for tomorrow.

it's only 130 but it feels like 400 to me cause i've been up for HOURS!

yehaw!

oh me oh my

so people have already left - and now some of the last of the americans are heading out. whitney on tuesday, bryan a week after. eleni's back in cyprus. oh it's overwhelming.
there is a sadness in the air - despite the sunshine and the girls' night we had last night and the time being spent with friends. this could be a combination of having to work the full week next week for the first time in a while, the test i need to administer to my CM2 classes that i did not create, and the departure of two of my closest friends here.
hm. full work week - the week before the two week vacation in april - classes were cancelled. upon my return from break in april - one of my classes didn't meet for two weeks. then we had a 6 day weekend. i return back from said weekend to find out that thursday is a strike so my schools are closed. this upcoming week is the first time i have seen some of my monday/thursday classes in FIVE WEEKS. this is insane.
the exam. was created by the conseilleurs pedagogiques, and is standardized throughout the department. this is not fair. my kids learned what i taught them, how i taught them. i was going to give them a fair test that would be a fair assessment of what we did during the school year. if you want to give a standardized test - give a better curriculum. the current one was pages and pages of information we could teach - it was up to us to sift through it. even when we taught the same thing - we taught different lists of vocab. did different types of exercises. and now this 8 page bullshit test. but, it will get done. it will. there is an oral part where i need to talk to them one on one. my smallest class of CM2s is 24 students. that will take forever and a day if i do what they want. so we're changing it. i've already changed a lot of things on that test. j'ai rien a branler... to be quite vulgar about it.
and of course - the departure of two of my closest friends here. alyson, jen, and tim are gone. that's sad. i had bryan and whit to turn to. whit's leaving in less than 72 hours. bryan a week after that. this is not okay.
so the combination of those three things are creating quite a knot in my stomach and chest and throat.

at least the sun is shining a little.

ohh so many thoughts

and here we go!
so steph and i headed to nice for our five day weekend, and met up with whitney on her way back from spain. steph and i arrived in nice around 5pm, went to the hostel, saw the mess on the floor and determined we were rooming with some stinky boys. turns out they were three guys from toronto - and the mess in the bathroom (the shower looked as though someone had tried to pot a plant in it) was a result of the guy who was there the night before. steph and i headed down to the beach. the beach here is all rocks - but still absolutely gorgeous. on the way down, we saw a guy playing the piano on the street. street performing piano! he was incredible. but seriously - trained pianist. he was promoting his upcoming show, we missed it. in either case - we got our own show. steph and i found an american themed restaurant - apparently here they think that barbeque means... CURRY! the wings were seasoned with curry, the kebabs were seasoned with curry... but they made the only decent margarita i've found in france. we went out on the "espace messena" which has these light up colored men - who change colors. they're sitting up on statues. they were part of an open-air art exhibit that the tram goes under/through. it was pretty cool. whit arrived late, sleep deprived, and giggly. so we went to bed.
the next day - we slept til 130. by accident! so did the toronto boys... whoops! the shower still wasn't working. we got dressed, left the hostel, went down the street, ate some food, and went to the beach. we noticed the lax lifestyle there - nothing seemed rushed, or pressing. it was awesome. AND WARM. and sunny. we wandered around the ocean front, found the old city, and our first taste of gelato there, though it was not the best. the best one we found the night after. the old city was cool, it was like our place plum but larger, more open, and more inviting. it was bad ass. we found some sandals for me, then took a seat on a park bench for a bit. we saw the HAPPIEST dog in the world - he wouldn't stop rolling around in the grass and running everywhere. we made our way back down to the old city for dinner, had an extremely yummy dinner - raviolis, eggplant, wine, fish, chocolate. ohhhh it was amazing.
so friday, we got up early. headed to MONACO. holy money. it was amazing. beautiful and rich and i want to retire there. the bus ride over was packed, but it was worth it. we hiked up a steep hill to the castle, ate some crepes, and then walked around the part of monaco near the cathedral and oceanography museum. the cathedral was gorgeous - the inside was covered with mosaics, not paintings. it was amazing. everything was beautiful, it was unbelievable. i'm sure with that much money they can afford all those beautiful buildings and stones and cars and to take care of everything else.... i was speechless. i was also speechless when we made our way down to the harbor, and i saw all the yachts. HOLY LORD THERE WERE BOATS IN BOATS. i was stunned. we of course went up to monte carlo - didn't go in the museum but checked it out. i saw the car i want - it's a maserati. yep. so we made our way back to nice, whitney's sandal broke, i got a pink sweatshirt, and we went out for dinner. whit got her gnocchi, finally. then we decided to go see a movie "jackpot". it's an american film but we saw it dubbed in french. not half bad. it was an awesome day. this vacation was just what i needed.
the next day - steph wanted to check out the cezanne museum. whit and i went to antibes to go to a sandy beach. it was absolutely gorgeous. it was a perfect lazy beach day. there were wind surfers in the morning, and the ever so famous topless ladies all over the place in the afternoon. i have discovered that spf 12 is a magical spf. whit and i came back around the same time as steph, went out for a yummy last night dinner, and a yummy last night gelato. it was a happy happy thing.
so we came back here sunday, that took all day. sunday night we caught up on grey's anatomy, and we hung out with the italians and frenchies and bryan.
i spent monday cleaning out my garden. looks a lot better. hung out with a kitty cat while i was doing it. we went to the fair monday night - it was kind of like a US fair, whitney and i played air hockey. yeah. it was fun times. we also got cotton candy.
yesterday was the only day i work this week - what with the strikes going on. one of my schools is actually CLOSED on thursday. my teacher said she wanted me to protest with them, she said i should be in at least one protest in my life. i'm like thanks, i'll protest for my own country when i do.
what else... what else...
alyson moved out while i was gone. its strange being here without her, i miss her.
i think something else that i miss is human contact. here they do their bisous, but there is a serious lack of hugging. the italians hug and put arms around everyone, and so do the americans. but there isn't as much hugging as i'd like. imma start giving out more hugs. yep. that's the plan. alright. i'm out.

links to the nice pictures:

part 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040454&l=3477b&id=10400438

part 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040455&l=e9208&id=10400438

vacations are a wonderful way to distract oneself...

as i discovered heading up to saint malo with bryan and malek. it was gorgeous! rode through the country side on a two story tgv, saw lots of cows and sheep which made me miss home. i think at one point i shouted 'HOLSTEINS!!!' and got funny looks. we had some serious time to kil in le mans, so we wandered around there, i chatted with one of my scottish friends because i couldn't remember the name of the new prime minister of britain (gordon brown, who is as a matter of fact scottish) and just hearing the accent made me long for scotland. but. i went to bretagne instead.
we arrived in saint malo, the weather was GORGEOUS. walked to our youth hostel to find discover that the buses were on strike so getting to le mont st michel the next day was going to be interesting. after checking in, we dropped our luggage and headed for....
THE BEACH!!!!
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN!!!!
SEASHELLS!!!!!
GIDDY HILARY!!!!!
yes so i started giggling like a small child, the yeminite and the floridian had some problems with the water temp (it was like cape cod or old orchard beach at this time of year). we watched a storm come in over the ocean, sought cover under the shelter of a restaurant that was closed due to it being france's labor day. then we made our way to the old city of saint malo. had a bit of an edinburgh feel to it (kind of makes sense, there was an intense british influence over that part of france for a while) with the small streets winding up to the cathedral all steep like. i loved it. thought it was great! ate some galettes (savory crepes) which are supposed to be a specialty up there. i noticed the graveyards up there had some of the most intense graves and mausoleums i had ever seen! they were huge and expansive with intense crucifixes... it was impressive. the next day we were off to le mont st michel. the buses were still on strike. let me tell you - getting there and leaving was way more stress than necessary. we got there - it was some anniversary (1,050th maybe?) of mont st michel, so everybody and their mother was there too. but - the city is very, very cool. fortified teeny city with the abbey (which still has monks chillin out in it!) and cute little shops. driving up to it was amazing - to see this abbey with the town around it set on the rock - amazing. hundreds of stairs (my thighs were BURNING), great views, and marsh sheep! these little sheep graze on the salty marsh of mont st michel when the tide is out. they're supposed to have extremely tender meat because of what they eat. i don't know - i didn't sample it. i did take some pictures from the view up top - which was quite entertaining. we found fountains to play in while we were in rennes, that was super fun! coming back to tours was a bit difficult - we had an hour delay in le mans because.....
they couldn't find a conductor for the train. he had to be driven in from tours. THAT my friends ... was ridiculous.
so here i am, back in tours. a group of us led jen to st pierre des corps today, she left to head to paris to go home. it was so sad. she started crying. it's insane to think that everyone's leaving. i hadn't thought to hard about it - we had our good-bye party at whitney's the other day. but to have one of my closest friends here leave, that was kind of a wake up call. it's all happening so fast - in three days i'll be in nice, and when i get home aly will be gone. i'll be coming home to my apartment, but there will be no roommate. i may place money on me crying in that moment. perhaps. i meet up with whitney in nice, and she's around here for a while. bryan's sticking around until the end of may. then that leaves me and stephanie and the other 9 month contract people. i'm not overly close with them, i think that's the hardest part.
grahame, cody, joanna, roman, tim, jen... they're all gone now.
but on a happy cute note - the yesterday when i had the door to the yard open, and normally we get nasty ass wolf spiders in here. but i looked to my right and our neighbor's cat was prowling around our kitchen. it was super cute. but he scampered away. he was in our yard again today, but we had the door closed so he didn't come up. i'm seriously contemplating stealing him for the next two months. i'll need a buddy.

where did the month of april go?

beats me.
i'm back, after a 12 day stint in the lovely US, specifically new england, more specifically VT/NH/MA. my vacation, despite not being in greece or sicily with the others - or poland - or amsterdam, was wonderful. all those people get to go home in a couple weeks or so. bryan is staying til the end of may. but almost everyone is headed out.
anyways - i digress... or digest as some might say.
my vacation was wonderful. spending time at home, doing nothing, going to MHC to see friends and talk to professors about my life plans (vomit) having meagan and bekki come up to visit - it was quite magical. the little dose of comfort i needed to get through the next couple months. yikes.
i've had some thoughts on returning - although i'm absolutely exhausted and confused as to what time it really is. the first is that i don't think i could call france home - even while i live here. i was tlkaing with a couple old ladies on the plane (i orignally wrote phone there - WOW) who asked if i was part of the student groups (high schoolers, i might add) headed to spain. i said no, i was working in france so i was headed back there. and they said "ohhhh so you're headed home! how nice! great place to live!" i don't know if they thought i was french or not. i don't think so - i was chatting it up with them outside the toilets for a while but all i thought was "naw ladies, i'm leaving home to go back to my apartment in france". of course i didn't say this, i just raved about how close my house was to castles.
which is true - it's not all bad here, (just wrote bad with two d's because color me badd came on my itunes... i'm really in rare form) as katie said "when i have a bad day, i'm like shit i'm in holyoke. when you have a bad day it's like oh yeah i'm in france" true statement. road trips to different parts of france are fun, the friends i've made are great, and WHEN IT STOPS RAINING EVERY 20 DAYS the city is beautiful. no, i'm not kidding. it rains here all the freakin time. i left 70 degree weather in new england to come home to rain. anyways. i think the hardest part about being here is the constant reminder that this ISN'T home, even if i wanted it to be. it has been so hard to assimilate and be accepted here as an american, or maybe just as a foreigner, but definitely as an american. which i expected. but at some point, after being here for a few months, i guess i imagined it to become obvious to everyone that i was here for a while and that i wasn't as close minded as they thought. but every time i meet a new person - the same subject comes up: the president, mcdonald's, LA/hollywood/miami, religion in relation to schools, overweight americans, and the death penalty. when they don't bring these things up - i'm shocked. someone always does though. i've stopped getting angry and have learned how to change the subject of a conversation. many methods.
when you come right down to it - i am american. and i am quite proud of it. not to say i'm about to be waving an american flag screaming stars and stripes forever down rue national here - although i did sing the star spangled banner in place plum one of my first nights here. the opinions these people have of my country are generally based on television and movies - the people who have been there understand my frustrations. when i'm told i come from the land of george bush i want to scream I'M FROM VERMONT YOU JACKASS. HE'S OUR PRESIDENT BUT THE MAN IS FROM TEXAS AND TEXAS AND VERMONT ARE TWO DIFFERENT PLACES. I'M FROM THE LAND OF HOWARD DEAN. REMEMBER THAT GUY? HE'S NUTS. but i have learned to control my anger, laugh, and say right. half the time these people don't know what they're talking about, and i've learned that i can't teach them. better to just enjoy my time here with the good people, doing the things i love here, and forget about the rest. i can't teach an entire culture about my culture in a night. and it's not my responsibility.
my responsibility is to teach my young'uns about the US and english and whatnot. maybe that some of them need to start wearing deoderant, even at age 11. sorry, that was mean. but there is one girl in one of our classes and the teacher and i will take turns opening the window and door. it's bad.
again - i digress/digest. i've got two months left. if i'm more awake tomorrow, and feeling a bit more positive, then i will do lesson plans. after giving them their tests i see that i have one class of geniuses. they are all brilliant. oh my goodness. so anyways. what i was going to say; i may try to plan out as much of the next two months as possible - my one class moves so slowly cause mondays are missed so much - and i only see them mondays. but whatever. their teacher doesn't seem too concerned, nor does she have much faith in my superiors. i have learned that, as the brilliant lenore reilly carlisle put it - i want to be in schools, but i don't want my own classroom. i do NOT want to be a teacher. i love the environment of schools, but nono. no teaching for me. maybe if i see a program in a school i agree with. the problem here? they have a standard they want these kids to live up to - and we don't have a standard to reach for... or the means to get there. we have our progressions, which are guides as to what they should be learning. fact of the matter is- none of us are certified english teachers, specifially ESL teachers. that's what they need. we are not able to reach these standards because we are not qualified. if they really want to bring their program up to a higher level... they need to make some serious changes.
which brings me to....
what am i doing with myself after france. OHHHHHHHH NOOOOOO
the ever-looming question.
well. working as a school counselor has been put on the table for me. so that widens my choices - but also helps me figure out what kind of a path i want to be on in grad school. now i've started looking into schools of education and not just psychology - that helps a great deal. still thinking clinical - don't get me wrong, but i need to do more research - literally, have to have more experience with research to boost my application and also research programs more. i have yet to hear back from UW professors i e-mailed (sad face). but we'll see how it rolls out.
wow! on that note, i'm going to go be useless for a bit before alyson gets back and we do laundry.
later gators

end o' march update.

well what can i say?
it's been a month of celebrations - my birthday was a blast, as i previously mentioned. since most of the assistants are leaving at the end of april, i've been trying to maximize my fun time with them while they're here. although i have now made friends with some urasmus students who will be here until mid-june, but as simo pointed out, i'm still the last one here. oh well. i spent easter with the same crew of people for about three nights straight. friday was a kareoke night, which moved into dancin with the french, italian, and germans that i know here, along with the few americans who were around. saturday night i joined up with thomas, elise, and franck for a delicious dinner chez thomas (elise cooked - quite delicious), party that the italian crew invited us to, back out dancing - piggy back ride from simo, heart to heart with bryan, simo trying to convince american girls he's from san francisco (have i mentioned he's an italian), the bartender who is on the dance floor recognizing me now (i had a chat with him one night about the states, he spent some time in philly) and ignoring other patrons to give me my drinks (i'm such a cutie he can't resist), long walk home with bryan and malek. easter sunday we have dinner at the italians, franck and thomas serenade all of us with songs about each and every one of us, maria's crazy but unbelievably nice and genuine boyfriend federico (he's going to be in a james bond movie - the next 007 keep an eye out for a ginormous italian man) teaching me each accent from each major area of italy, having federico and simone talk to me in italian accents from naples forever, dying of laughter about this, half falling asleep there, dome and pascal drive me home. we dont work monday here in france after easter, and monday is pasquetta in italy (literally meaning little easter) which is spent eating good food and drinking a special italian pasquetta wine with friends (see left), so i did, chez franck with thomas, elise, dome, pascal, barbara, and simo. it was a good day. and it's been a good weekend of celebration.
which leads me to the week - yesterday was teaching which wasn't too bad at all, five classes. last night i couldn't sleep well... but whatever. i updated my myspace page which now looks awesome. today i met with my landlord, he's willing to cut me a deal on the apartment, it's normally 750 a month, alyson and i are getting it for 620, and he's giving it to me by myself for 510. it's only 200 euro more a month than i'm paying now, and for two months - i figure it's worth it to not deal with the hassle of moving and changing address, and i get this big nice space to myself. i will also still get reimbursed from the gov't so that's a good thing. i can transfer savings from my us acct to my french one and be set :)
i re-did my hair - it's more red this time, although there's more color washing out when i wash my hair this time round and it's making me nervous...
it's also my mother's birthday (and my uncle's) so happy birthday to you both.
i got all of my worksheets and plans done for the rest of this week and next week, so i'm looking forward to a weekend of no worries before heading home next friday.

twenty three!

yes! that's how old i am now folks. and i must say, although there were some special people from home missing in my life here in france, i had quite a wonderful birthday. the day of my birthday i spent in chinon with alyson and bryan. chinon is a town not too far from me, which has a castle, and some very, very good wine. it also is home to another assistant friend of ours, who joined us for a birthday lunch in a cafe called "le cafe de la paix" the peace cafe! lovely! so after that we headed up to the castle - up quite a few stairs to get there - to find that it's 3 euros to get in due to the fact that they're doing renovations and restorations to many parts of the castle. so we got a nice little tour from a woman (the tour was in english! we figured why not?) and then pranced around the parts of the castle that weren't under construction, up to a seriously tall bell tower with a view of the rivier (la vienne) and discovered that both bryan and i are not okay with heights. oh well.
we then went to a special little wine store, where alyson bought me a birthday bottle of red which was labelled "elegance". we figured that was fitting for the birthday. we then sampled some other chinon wines at a cafe, grabbed some baguette and cheese, and headed back to the train so i could come back for a birthday dinner with whit, jen, and aly at one of my favorite restaurants in tours. it was a good birthday. good food, good friends, good wine, and a castle! how lovely.
the next day was a nice lazy saturday, which included some lesson planning, grocery shopping, the arrival of tim (with pastries!) and my birthday party. i decided to do something with a black and white theme. i had 30 people in my apartment. have i mentioned that my apartment is about the size of... well. studio b at dancers' corner. and one part of that is alyson's room which we weren't allowing people into. so it was crowded. i had to turn the heat off (which is insane because i'm always freezing in here) due to the number of people. countries represented include: USA, england, ireland, scotland, russia, germany, italy, france, greece, yemin, south africa columbia, poland, portugal. states represented from the USA: VT, PA, NH/GA (she moved), TX, RI, CA, FL, NC. quite a diverse crowd. it was a wonderful party. pic to the left is a USA/italy moment. hooray. and yes, i shot all pictures in black and white - that's all people were wearing! cause everybody stuck to my theme!
so for those of you who haven't heard - i will be coming home in april for about 12 days. i plan on doing nothing during this time. by nothing i do mean head down to mhc and get my rec letters in line for grad school and see my girls briefly. but in vt/nh... i'll be takin it easy. soakin up my parents and my dog and my dance studio and my restaurants and my bed and my room and my bathroom and shower and the view and the river and all of that. i've been doing some thinking about after france options (mom, dad, when i have a better organized list i can totally give you a solid power point presentation. i have ideas and plans and options. vous inquietez pas!). there are far too many options. but i'm now aware of what i don't want to do. HOORAY!
so i leave you with some lovely images of my birthday weekend.
left: 8 million people in my apartment
right: view of chinon from the bell tower.

snowflakes

i realized today what i've been missing all winter.
...
winter
...

i never got the pleasure of sitting inside and watching the snow fall... or coming in covered in snow - or even PLAYING in snow. yes, it was cold. yes, i saw snow capped mountains in scotland.
but i had a completely non-white winter.
how unbelievably sad.

so after all that pre-vacation excitement

we have the end of vacation bummer session.
although vacation as a whole was GREAT!
where can i start???
saturday i went up to paris for the night so i could more easily meet my parents at 6 am on sunday. turns out that meant i didn't sleep since i met up with pascal and dominica and their friends for a while. and then that became like two am. and had to be at the airport at 6am. which meant leaving where i was at 530. so yeah. no sleep. grab the parents - who were jet lagged at CDG, head back to tours, grab lunch, take naps, grab dinner, go to bed.
spend the next day at blois and amboise and clos luce. clos luce was where leonardo da vinci lived the end of his life and died. it was a cool place though.
next day we go to chenonceau - SO GORGEOUS. see the picture to the left. then we head up to paris for a four night stint checking out: notre dame, the left bank, the eiffel tour, taking a boat tour of the seine, the pantheon, the louvre, and all over wandering about paris. it was quite a blast, my mom was overwhelmed by how big everything was, but she seemed to enjoy herself immensely. it was interesting being here with my parents, it was a nice little vacation but made me miss home even more, i got to see my parents but not experience all of the lovely joys of the VT life.
but anyways. then i head off to the lovely land known as scotland. first thing's first - i go to the world's end for some food and a strongbow. then head back to my hostel, where i meet lily and dodo. they are from france and austria, and we go out for a pub crawl to experience edinburgh's bars. the next day i spent wandering about the city - princes street gardens, the meadows, checking out the programs at the university (oooo mature grown up decisions - barf) then meeting up with lily and dodo again at the elephant house to get coffees in the place that inspired j.k. rowling to write a little number called harry potter. oooo also exciting. we head out for a ghost tour later that night (lily and i are scared in that picture) after making a silly grocery shopping trip, and then meet up with a friend we made on the pub crawl in the oz bar for a quick drink. the next day would be... monday. we get up early, i spend the day with them, and then at around 4 hear from a friend of mine from christmastime who lives in edinburgh, inviting me to crash with him and his roommate (another friend from christmas). crash at theirs for the next two nights, GO TO THE MOVIES!!!! IN ENGLISH!!!! saw jumper. not bad. not perfect. but alright. check out a posh bar in the not so posh area where they live. interesting experience. still have yet to climb arthur's seat - i need a nice day and a good pair of shoes to do that. the boots i had on weren't fitting. so after two nights of edinburgher (edinburger??) hospitality i go to glasgow - which is a cool little city. well not too little. i liked what i saw of it that day - hit up two museums and the willow tea rooms..... see image to the right. quite a nice little place. and well known for their teas. check out the university, but their psych program doesn't quite fit what i had in mind - although they do have a vet school... interesting. who remembers when i wanted to be a vet and james herriot was my favorite author. sadly, my last day in scotland - the reason i need to go back to glasgow - i wound up with a killer fever and chills and aches and pains. i stayed in bed all day after venturing out to check out the building shaped like an armadillo and the cathedral, but instead i went to marks and spencer and bought soup and went home after i realized my joints were locking into place in the ridiculous winds. so i went home and slept, in the lounge, across from a very nice australian boy who was inside reading for the same reason. i ate soup and updated my photos on my computer and he drank tea and read his book and that was about it. so i flew back here, and here i am. listening to jason mraz. and i shall leave you with the beautiful lyrics from his song "after an afternoon"which by the by is one of the few songs that actually mentions a girl with rich brown eyes and long dark hair. oh yeah baby. we are a sexy bunch that inspire beautiful songs.

face to palm
tear to tear
and mouth to tongue
heart to ground
say heart to ground
say any old thing.

oh yeah - photos from the trip with the parents are at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036425&l=1ba9c&id=10400438

omigoodnessvacationsalmosthere

and yes that had to be said as one word. the above picture is the happiness with hair and also new sweater. oo sweater.
the weather here has been gorgeous lately - well, today it was beautiful. i spent the day getting ready, cleaning the apartment a little, running to the caf office. this is a beautiful thing, the caf. apparently you are only supposed to pay a certain percentage of your paycheck in rent. if you pay more than this, the caf reimburses you. so i finally got all my paperwork in today, and according to the lady i spoke to, i should get a lump sum of reimbursements for october, november, december, and january within three weeks.
hallelujah. right at the end of vacation, which is when i'm normally paid anyways.
i also met the lovely whitney for coffee/hot chocolate (she's not much of a coffee drinker) so we could discuss life and enjoy the weather while i waited for my landlord to come back from lunch for some paperwork, and she waited for her teacher to call cause they had a rendez-vous today. had a nice dinner, and went for a two hour walk with jen all over the city tonight.
today was pretty wonderful, except for th fact that for some reason, my key will not work in the outside lock of the main door of our building. inside lock - fine. outside - doesn't go in. jens and alysons do, so i called the landlord and she said well you've been able to get in haven't you? and i said well yes after i call my friends or ring someone else's doorbell. she said oh well someone else had that problem too. she then told me there was nothing she could do about it.
this would all be fine, except for my key really. really. does not work. for the past couple months sometimes it didn't work, and i figured it was just the cold weather messing with the lock. but today, it hasn't worked at all. if it doesn't work tomorrow i'm going down there and telling the old woman to make me another - this is ridiculous.
what else is new? whitney's birthday party was a blast, got to see some familiar faces that i hadn't seen in a while - note pascal and hilary washout picture to the right. pascal is a friend through the italians - he's french (from savoie, the region where my french professor from college grew up) spent some time here in tours with his girlfriend (who is italian - from sicily) and now lives in paris. so it had been a while. this is pascal's angry face, and my it's almost one in the morning and these boots are hurting my feet and i'm tired and had champagne face. although there are some pictures of everyone having fun. i swear.
jen and i went for a two hour long walk tonight. i know i already mentioned that - but the long walk was long overdue. i had forgotten how much thinking gets done on a long walk. a wise woman once told me that when you're moving forward it helps your thought process move forward as well. it's true. it also helps to have a nice sounding board like jen, who seems to be able to get right to the heart of every problem you have. it's incredible. but the basic conclusion of the walk was that we're at a crossroads in our lives, and we need the freedom to take whatever path we want. like the walk we took tonight. we were kind of moving in a direction, but only corner by corner, street by street, and eventually, when our feet were tired, and we felt like we should go home, we decided to head in a definite direction. that's what this france trip is all about. bit by bit, figuring out where we want to go next. on our own time. at our own pace. and on our own. there will be parts of the journey where we have a friend with us, but for the most part, it's us. doing our thing. and that's quite alright. i've spent a lot of my life making decisions with everyone else in mind. i think now is about the time when i start making decisions for myself. really. the idea that i'm going to live my life based on anyone's feelings by my own - at this point - is asinine. i've always tried to live up to a standard, or i guess what i thought was a standard. i've tried to please everyone. you know something? you can't do that. i am too afraid to hurt people. and i wind up hurting myself.
so. a promise i made to myself, was that the next time i come to a crossing where i can go left, right, or straight; i'm not going to think about what the person to the left or the person to the right or the person directly in front of me is thinking. they're not coming with me. as far as i know. i'm gonna make the choice. all on my own. because this is my life. the people around me - i love them. and i know i need them around. because without them i wouldn't be who i am today. but this isn't any one of their lives. no, it's not. and at the end of the day, at the end of the journey, their decisions aren't the important ones, mine are. because it's my life.
so now i get to ride off into that sunset and take hold of what is mine.

ALMOST BREAK!!! ALMOST BREAK!!!

so. here we are. it's the first of february. i have vacation starting... friday. i've got monday - 5 classes (but two are the exact same lesson), tuesday - six classes, wednesday - no classes, thursday - all day meeting with my bosses - one of whom is heinous and should really just quit the job, friday - two classes (but they are the exact same, and it's making up for me being sick last thursday as well). then i've got friday night which is mojito night at a local bar, saturday afternoon i head up to paris to stay there for the night, sunday morning grab my parents at 6am from the airport, to return back here to tours. spend the next two nights here with the rentals, then head up to paris tuesday night, spend my time in paris until saturday, when i fly up to scotland for a six day stint there on my own.
the time between now and the last time i posted has been alright - the curious george lesson has been a hit with the kids, although my boss didnt' get it. which is funny, because she was there when my other boss and i laid out the plans for what was going on. she observed me, after showing up 20 minutes late to the lesson, insisted on shaking my hand while the students were working which was awkward, and said "i don't understand this book thing" i got so mad i started crying and said i discussed this with your colleague. we planned it out ourselves. and she was like well i didn't know that from this one day lesson plan you have for me. you should plan better. which is when i said "i've done this lesson 7 times with all of my other classes. this is the last one. if you want to see the others you can. but i thought the lesson plans were for me. i know what i'm doing." and she said "yes but i don't know" and i said "well i'm sorry but i don't think 25 minutes of 1 of my classes is enough to judge an entire unit." she dropped it at that.
i was relieved to find out, from one of my teachers, that this boss of mine has such a horrible reputation that one of my teacher's friends (also a teacher) refused to take the administrative better pay position with this woman because she is so awful. apparently she not only talks down to the assistants, but to her colleagues. i almost cried again because i was relieved to find out it wasn't just me.
other than that, classes have been great. i've got one group of kids that's completely out of control, but it's alright. i'll get through it.
so for the upcoming week i have review lessons planned, to try and see how much we've retained in our curious george stories. hooray.
alright i'm beat, running errands was tiring today. plus jen and i have to do laundry tomorrow. ohhhh boy.

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time to kill between classes

so hello. although this is hard due to the fact that i am writing on a french keyboard since i am in my school's library. i was going to mess around on facebook but it is taking forever for that to charge up, so i figure this is a better way to pass the time than sitting in the break room drinking cup after cup of coffee.
i am normally teaching one of my groups of CM1 kids, but they had to go to some thing... i don't quite remember what it is. so i am waiting until my youngest class starts, but they have also left the school to go elsewhere, and i am unsure of when they will be returning. my one teacher was like oh! you're done! good for you!
but i don't think that i am. i wish that i had been able to move this class up to this block - then i could go home and tackle that all too important task of napping.
oh well. what can i tell you folks?
i have three full weeks of work until my february vacation starts, when i will be heading up to paris for the night (i rented myself a hotel room and i am quite looking forward to a night by myself in paris) grab my jet lagged parents from CDG, come back to tours, and spend the next week with my parents. we will be ending our trip in paris, and then i will be making my way back to bonnie scotland! three nights in edinburgh, and i still need to make reservations for a hostel in glasgow. i should get on that. i am quite excited for this trip - there is a lot that i meant to do last time that i didn't get done, and i want to check out the university scene up there. grahame told me that i wouldn't like glasgow - even though he's from there - but then he decided i might actually get on quite well in glasgow. christine seems to love it there, says the people are even nicer than the ones in edinburgh, which is saying something. i've been reading lonely planet and checking out what each city has to offer and both seem excellent.
last night jen brough some chicken downstairs (i know that i am random right now - bear with me) for us to grill up with some rice and some of the veggies we have. have you ever opened chicken and had it smell like fish? because i did last night. i asked her about it and she said it should be fine - alyson pointed out that when she worked in the deli they had to use chicken within three days. well i cooked it anyway, then saw on the package that she had bought it the 10th of january; yesterday was the 20th of january. so i cooked it an extra five minutes and didn't eat any, nor did jen cause she was like oh yeah it does taste weird (i chalk part of that up to the weird dijon mustard she said to cook it in - we all know i don't like mustard). alyson was the ballsy one who ate it and she's fine today. i am impressed.
but you know what i was not impressed by?
i got off the bus this afternoon and was walking down the sidewalk, minding my own business, and i see a man next to his car with the door open. i think nothing of it until i see that he is leaning on his car with one hand on the roof of the car and one hand hidden in front of him, practically lying on his car. now - i have been to enough field parties with enough of my drunken male friends to know the stance of a man peeing on something. this was in the middle of the street, next to a high school at around one in the afternoon. are you kidding? really? and there was a flow of pee down the curb. that is gross. this is a country where men apparently mark their territory like dogs all over the place - and speaking of dogs - let their dogs shit all over the sidewalk. you can't gaze at a beautiful blue sky above you because chances are you'll step in a nice little present left by a dog. they also seem to have no qualms about nose picking. i clearly remember being in kindergarten and a boy in my class getting YELLED AT for picking his nose. here people will talk to you while digging for gold. it's crazy, and everyone i talk to seems to have the same reaction as me: trying really, really hard not to laugh at these people while they talk to you with their fingers up their noses. a small child would be expected to have a finger up his or her nose. not a 30 year old.
anyways. enough of my gross france rant, let me rant about french men. they seem to think that as a woman you are obligated to fall in love with them the second they show any interest in you. it's incredible. i have had one kid tell me that he wanted to marry me within ten minutes of knowing me, and that he wanted to go to the US with me to meet my family. i told him he was scaring me and that he was too intense (in french because the boy spoke no english) and finished it with a f*** off in english. i think he is the only person who does not know the f-bomb, it seems like the only word all of the frenchies know. i met someone else who said "why can't you tell me you love me? (known him for ohhhhh 5 hours) are you scared of love?" no, psychopath i am not. i am actually quite a loving person. and yes i do have attachment issues and i have something equivalent to fort knox built around my heart, but that has nothing to do with why i will not say i love you. i will not say i love you because i don't love you because i don't know you. go be a crazy-ass elsewhere.

well the recess bell has rung: i am going to get going.
peace

hm. so i think

that i've either a) completely messed up my sleep cycle by going to bed at 730 in the morning friday night/saturday morning or b) developed a form of insomia. lately i've been needing to watch movies to fall asleep. although i am feeling quite exhausted right now. but anyways.
things here are going well, i'm loving my new hair - it's so nice to have it short again and somewhat manageable. plus the color is wicked fun. alyson and jen have reminded me that sometimes all you need are some awesome girlfriends in life. it was awesome friday night because almost all of the assistants were together at cody's, and it has been forever and a day since that happened.
i've done a somewhat half assed job with my lessons for tomorrow, but part of that i can't seem to print off what i need to print off at one of my schools, so im just going to repeat what i did at another school. even though it's not following the plan i have for that school. damn.
i will leave you with some images of friday. first one is roman, who is russian pretending to be an angry russian. he pulled it off.
the second, hilary, joanna, and grahame enjoying the effects of sangria.
the last one is grahame and phillipp, the german and the scotsman, being fantastic, as per usual.
peace out.

there are more reasons to stay in france than the food.

the hair dressers. i have a fantastic haircut with super awesome color option. and i'm very excited.
what else can i say?
i gave my kids tests yesterday and monday, and i've finally finished grading all of them. which took forever. but it was alright. i had a few kids who didn't understand the directions, one boy who cheated off one girl, and i'm not sure how to handle that situation at all. but i'll deal with that tomorrow.

i was given the brilliant idea from my boss. i've introduced my students to curious george, and now they get to write their own stories (basically the first few sentences of introduction) about different animals. so we're starting those projects in my classes - but i'm not letting all of them know what exactly the project is. i'm also supposed to be getting observed soon by my supervisors. gross. last time that happened i was not prepared for it and i didn't enjoy it that much. but whatever. i'm just hoping she doesn't come to the classes where the teacher's aren't in the room. this is for a couple reasons. the first is that the classes are terrible and i have to be absolutely heinous with them otherwise they just don't respond. i know they want us to do the positive reinforcement thing with them, but the fact of the matter is that these kids have been programmed to only respond to fear of an instructor, not respect. this is only at one school. we have also done exactly what they told us not to do, which is cut the class in half and i take one half for 45 minutes and the other half for 45 minutes. i'm not supposed to do this because they are required by law to to have an hour and a half of english a week. well, technically i'm with these kids for an hour and a half, but they are only with me for 45 minutes since we split them. but this way, they get to talk more, instead of me with 30 students. one teacher to 30 students is just not fair. the people who teach in high schools and middle schools aren't allowed to have more than 15 in their classes. jeez.

but i don't have to worry about that tomorrow. i've got to get through tomorrow's classes and then my weekend starts - i've got nothing on my plate for friday, or saturday, or sunday. hooray!

pretty soon my parents visit, and that should be real fun. it will be nice to see them, considering how long it's been. my cousin nick just found me on facebook because he felt like joining after checking out my pictures. i hadn't realized how long it had been since i'd seen my family. everyone got together for one of my cousin's weddings this summer, but i was here. kinda makes me feel out of the loop. but oh well.

i did discover that itunes has CSI, and i downloaded what was there of season 8, so i'm all caught up on that. THANK GOD. i know we were all concerend.

alright. i'm off to bed.
night night kiddies