Well hello there, folks. After 1 train, 1 taxi, one hostel, one shuttle bus, 2 airplanes, and Dad's snazzy new car, I am officially home. Leaving Deauville was not easy after making my home there for ten months, but my move was made easier by the knowledge that I'm not returning to make my home in a pit of vipers. The nearly 4 days that I've spent on American soil have been quite pleasant so far, though I cannot help noting some differences/things that I miss/have missed/forgot existed:
Differences/Things I will miss:
-THE YOGURT AISLE!!!!!!! One of the greatest parts of living in France (okay, minor exaggeration) was the huge variety of yogurt/yogurt dessert options, and seeing the 4 sad fridges that make up my Kroger's yogurt section. Where is the brassé? The riz au lait? The fromage blanc? The lovely mousses? Back in Deauville, clearly.
-Watching Un gars, une fille, Vous les femmes, Gad Elmaleh, and the French news with Cathya and Katherine (or even by myself)
-Walking everywhere. Even though Deauville is tiny I still ended up walking a lot, and even though I still knew I needed to exercise, it was nice to have physical activity such an easily achievable goal.
-The beach and the planches. It was never warm enough for me to go swimming in the Channel (except for the last Sunday and Monday, maybe, when I didn't have time), but it was nice to be able to go read on the beach or splashing in the waves to cool off (or freeze, as happened when I did that in February).
-Public transport. Sigh.
Things I missed/forgot existed:
-Grape nuts! What a joyous surprise on Sunday morning.
-Ale 8-1. Still haven't had one yet, but some friends were partaking at a 4th of July party and I sense that it won't be long until I follow suit.
-Counter space, well stocked pantries and refrigerators, and dishwashers. Lovely inventions.
-Icy cold water! I didn't even realize how much I missed this until I noticed how refreshed I felt yesterday after having 3 glasses. To quote my grandmother, "Water is a cool and refreshing beverage."
-Non UHT pasteurized milk. Ie Milk that must stay in the fridge prior to being opened. It's so much tastier.
-Clothes dryers. Non-prickly towels are such a boon.
-The library. I picked up 5 books, 9 cds, and 2 movies from the famed Paul Sawyier Public Library yesterday and it was a beautiful thing. I'm not sure where Deauville gets off having closed their library and not having opened the mediatheque yet.
Lists aside, it's nice to be home.
Showing posts with label listmaking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label listmaking. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Shaving Cream and Odds and Ends
Someone was kind enough to remind me today that I have been neglectful in my blogging, and since I'm leaving tomorrow evening to begin my trek to ESPANA to see the lovely Molly and Alejandro I thought I'd take the hint lest my blog die of neglect.
1) The title: Katherine bought shaving cream the other day so that we could channel our youth by spraying it on the table and drawing in it. I won't tell you how long we spent this evening drawing where we're going on vacation, our patronuses, various animals, men with beards, our names, strange shapes...but it was fun.
2) I have an amoureux. Lalou, one of my favorite 1st graders (the one who I've been helping illustrate his book) ran up to me at lunch recess today and gave me a big hug, and then at afternoon recess hugged me around my leg and told me I was his amoureuse, or girlfriend. I said oh? but you don't argue with Lalou because he's pretty sassy. Our love affair has thus far consisted of us dancing around holding hands and of him sharing his snack with me (he insisted), except for his chocolate milk because he told me he didn't want to get my microbes. I'm not his only girlfriend, though--he later informed his married teacher that she was his amoureuse, too. We should probably make a club.
3) I have a sore throat and an earache. I think it's just from a cold, but the timing's not very good. I don't have a fever, so I'm not particularly concerned, but it's still annoying and kind of painful. I don't feel like taking the time to go to the doctor so instead I went to the pharmacy, a delightful little place in France where you walk in, tell them your symptoms, and they give you drugs. This isn't too different from the US, because here they give you the drugs that you can just pluck off the shelves in the US. Anyway, I am now going to bank on some unknown pills and lozenges to cure me. Let's keep our figners crossed, because I want to be able to enjoy Spain!
Talk to you in a few weeks!
1) The title: Katherine bought shaving cream the other day so that we could channel our youth by spraying it on the table and drawing in it. I won't tell you how long we spent this evening drawing where we're going on vacation, our patronuses, various animals, men with beards, our names, strange shapes...but it was fun.
2) I have an amoureux. Lalou, one of my favorite 1st graders (the one who I've been helping illustrate his book) ran up to me at lunch recess today and gave me a big hug, and then at afternoon recess hugged me around my leg and told me I was his amoureuse, or girlfriend. I said oh? but you don't argue with Lalou because he's pretty sassy. Our love affair has thus far consisted of us dancing around holding hands and of him sharing his snack with me (he insisted), except for his chocolate milk because he told me he didn't want to get my microbes. I'm not his only girlfriend, though--he later informed his married teacher that she was his amoureuse, too. We should probably make a club.
3) I have a sore throat and an earache. I think it's just from a cold, but the timing's not very good. I don't have a fever, so I'm not particularly concerned, but it's still annoying and kind of painful. I don't feel like taking the time to go to the doctor so instead I went to the pharmacy, a delightful little place in France where you walk in, tell them your symptoms, and they give you drugs. This isn't too different from the US, because here they give you the drugs that you can just pluck off the shelves in the US. Anyway, I am now going to bank on some unknown pills and lozenges to cure me. Let's keep our figners crossed, because I want to be able to enjoy Spain!
Talk to you in a few weeks!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Zombie attack
There are some days when nothing of interest seems to happen at school. Today was not one of those days.
-Brigitte, who teaches MS and is one of my favorite teachers at Breney, was sick today and all of her students speculated on whether she would ever return to school. Children amuse me with their ideas on illness.
-Meanwhile, Zoltan (one of my GS kids) threw up in the classroom and all of his classmates felt the need to tell me about it, even though they had just heard the other kids tell me. Odd.
-Alessio (also GS) finally came back from Italy (where his dad lives) today, and when the teacher asked him if he goes to school when he's there and he responded no, several of his classmates explained "Of course not! There's no school in Italy." This led to a brief discussion of where school does and does not exist. I was glad to be there so that I could explain that we do have schools in the US, Nathalie explained that there are schools in Australia, and we speculated on whether they exist in the desert. The consensus was probably not.
-I wish that every unit I taught was as fun as the animals one that I am just finishing up. We've been able to play a lot of games (like charades!) with it and I can tell the kids really know the animals' names.
-I was talking to the kids about their English teacher from last year, Patrick, who apparently sometimes used a cane to help him walk and learned that two of my students used to try to steal his cane from him and hide it. Mael told me that those two kids were probably going to end up in prison when they were older. Egad!
-My students are very confused by the fingerless gloves that Benjamin gave me for Christmas. I don't think a day has gone by without a student asking me where the rest of my gloves are.
-And finally, a huge herd of them pretended to be zombies both when we were walking back to the classroom and at recess. I pity those poor teachers who have to try to teach despite zombie attacks led by 5 year olds.
-Brigitte, who teaches MS and is one of my favorite teachers at Breney, was sick today and all of her students speculated on whether she would ever return to school. Children amuse me with their ideas on illness.
-Meanwhile, Zoltan (one of my GS kids) threw up in the classroom and all of his classmates felt the need to tell me about it, even though they had just heard the other kids tell me. Odd.
-Alessio (also GS) finally came back from Italy (where his dad lives) today, and when the teacher asked him if he goes to school when he's there and he responded no, several of his classmates explained "Of course not! There's no school in Italy." This led to a brief discussion of where school does and does not exist. I was glad to be there so that I could explain that we do have schools in the US, Nathalie explained that there are schools in Australia, and we speculated on whether they exist in the desert. The consensus was probably not.
-I wish that every unit I taught was as fun as the animals one that I am just finishing up. We've been able to play a lot of games (like charades!) with it and I can tell the kids really know the animals' names.
-I was talking to the kids about their English teacher from last year, Patrick, who apparently sometimes used a cane to help him walk and learned that two of my students used to try to steal his cane from him and hide it. Mael told me that those two kids were probably going to end up in prison when they were older. Egad!
-My students are very confused by the fingerless gloves that Benjamin gave me for Christmas. I don't think a day has gone by without a student asking me where the rest of my gloves are.
-And finally, a huge herd of them pretended to be zombies both when we were walking back to the classroom and at recess. I pity those poor teachers who have to try to teach despite zombie attacks led by 5 year olds.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Obstacles
Here's what currently stands between me and being home:
-5 English lessons, to 8 different groups of extremely excited and Christmas-ready students
-1 train ride to Paris
-1 night in a hostel
-1 RER ride out to Roissy-CDG
-The confusing, distressing, exasperating mayhem of that horrendously laid out airport
-1 very long plane ride to Chicago
-1 long layover in Chicago
-1 flight to Lexington
I hope not to have to add snow and flight delays to this list!!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
J'aime...Je n'aime pas
Since I know that you all are fascinated with all the inner workings of my mind here is a list of things that I like (j'aime) and that I don't like (je n'aime pas) about France. If you've ever seen the movie Amelie, this post is to be read in the same way that narrator introduces each of the main characters with his or her likes and dislikes.
J'aime: the huge cheese selection at the grocery store (I bought a delicious new Pont-L'Eveque yesterday).
Je n'aime pas: not being able to find peanut butter, or having to take out a loan to buy 300g of it if I can manage to find it on the grocery store shelves.
J'aime: being able to walk nearly everyplace I need to get to in town.
Je n'aime pas: walking to the bakery, or the bank, or the grocery only to discover that it's Wednesday (or Tuesday, or Friday...) and it's closed.
J'aime: teaching a lesson that is both challenging and fun for my students, and seeing how excited they are when they realize they're communicating in English, rather than some strange code I've made up to inconvenience them.
Je n'aime pas: having my lesson, and my concentration, interrupted when other teachers or school officials waltz in and either carry on loud conversations with each other or accuse me of messing up computer equipment that I've never touched. I know I'm only 22, but can you at least pretend that you respect me? And no, I'm not bitter about this at all.
J'aime bien: having my students run up to me at recess or in the hallway to give me hugs and bisous.
J'aime pas: seeing them fight among themselves, and seeing my 3 year olds in particularly tell each other that they're not friends anymore and that they're not invited to each other's houses.
J'adore: travelling and being able to practice my French with new and different people.
J'aime pas: realizing I haven't been saving much of my paycheck because of my travels, and because I want to eat something other than a stale crust of bread while I travel.
J'aime: having a kitchen where I can cook and bake whatever I want.
Je n'aime pas: worrying our Thanksgiving feast will be a failure because our oven is probably too small to cook a turkey.
J'aime bien: Getting Wednesdays off and 2 weeks breaks here and there because of the French school calendar.
Je déteste: Having to work on Thanksgiving.
I feel like this list is sufficiently long for now.
Je vous aime bien!
J'aime: the huge cheese selection at the grocery store (I bought a delicious new Pont-L'Eveque yesterday).
Je n'aime pas: not being able to find peanut butter, or having to take out a loan to buy 300g of it if I can manage to find it on the grocery store shelves.
J'aime: being able to walk nearly everyplace I need to get to in town.
Je n'aime pas: walking to the bakery, or the bank, or the grocery only to discover that it's Wednesday (or Tuesday, or Friday...) and it's closed.
J'aime: teaching a lesson that is both challenging and fun for my students, and seeing how excited they are when they realize they're communicating in English, rather than some strange code I've made up to inconvenience them.
Je n'aime pas: having my lesson, and my concentration, interrupted when other teachers or school officials waltz in and either carry on loud conversations with each other or accuse me of messing up computer equipment that I've never touched. I know I'm only 22, but can you at least pretend that you respect me? And no, I'm not bitter about this at all.
J'aime bien: having my students run up to me at recess or in the hallway to give me hugs and bisous.
J'aime pas: seeing them fight among themselves, and seeing my 3 year olds in particularly tell each other that they're not friends anymore and that they're not invited to each other's houses.
J'adore: travelling and being able to practice my French with new and different people.
J'aime pas: realizing I haven't been saving much of my paycheck because of my travels, and because I want to eat something other than a stale crust of bread while I travel.
J'aime: having a kitchen where I can cook and bake whatever I want.
Je n'aime pas: worrying our Thanksgiving feast will be a failure because our oven is probably too small to cook a turkey.
J'aime bien: Getting Wednesdays off and 2 weeks breaks here and there because of the French school calendar.
Je déteste: Having to work on Thanksgiving.
Je vous aime bien!
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