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.