Amsterdamming

OK, so backtrack to last Thursday. Miss Ants in the Pants, AKA me, didn't think her classes could go by any slower. But before I knew it, it was 4:15 and I was at Gare de l'Est. Just a hop, skip & jump to Gare du Nord, where I awaited my Bradley. The Eurostar came in, I stared at the gate searching-- but no Brad. Hm. I had noticed his flight was delayed but hoped it wouldn't have caused him to miss his Eurostar. As in all times of panic, I called Jess. "He had an HOUR to get from Heathrow to St Pancras?! No way," stated my London-savvy lad. Well, in all honesty that put my mind at ease for the moment. Assuming he caught the next Eurostar out, I bought an overpriced espresso and waited.

Bingo. Eurostar #2 rolled into the station and there was Brad. YAY! After several of Brad's awesomely wonderful hugs, we were on our way. Through the pouring rain we navigated the French, Belgian and Dutch freeways and got to Amsterdam around 1AM. Sadly, our target locales were closed by the time we got all checked in, but we were able to pop into a small club for some drinks. We were tired anyway and decided to call it a night. A big weekend lay ahead!

Day 2: We wandered. We ate. And man, did we find some coffee shops!!! We went to the Poezenboat (cat boat), wandered around town, drank Heineken, and coffee shopped it up. That night we attempted to go dancing. The club was OK, but the music went downhill and we took off. Honestly, don't remember much else. But I know Friday was a good day.

Day 3: Bikes! My third time in A'dam and I had never rented a bike before. Brad and I headed out across the big canal behind Centraal station and took off into the countryside. I can't remember the last time I rode a bike but MAN, I am so glad he talked me into it. So much fun. We stopped in a park area and ate the best Gouda ever. Mmm. Then back into town, I'm sure more coffee shops were involved. We found one that had games. We played a game of checkers, and were a good few minutes into it until we realized this was no ordinary checkerboard. Instead of 8 x 8, it was 10 x 10. Good game anyway, thanks in part to the vaporizer on hand. Hehe.

Day 4: Back to la France. The rain was back as well. We stopped briefly in Rotterdam, just because Brad wanted to, but other than a couple of spiffy bridges we weren't too impressed. We stopped again in Belgium for lunch-- again, nothing to write home about. We got back to Paris around 8PM. I helped Brad navigate the metro, find his hotel, and decided to stay with him because it was late and I did not want to deal with lugging baggage on a train back to Troyes. We spent the evening drinking an overpriced bottle of wine while walking along the Latin Quarter, had a yummy Italian dinner, and went to bed.

So Monday, back to Troyes for me. Was tough to get back to work after such a great weekend, but the pain was dulled by my lycee's St Patrick's celebration. I had invited Rich along, and it was a good time. "Traditional Irish" food (beef stew, with that distinct French beef-y taste that started making me nauseous), Guinness, Irish folk music and dancing. Wow was that a funny time. Rich tore up the dance floor. I did a waltz with my responsable, Patrick. I jigged with some of my students. It was hilarious.

I didn't have class today because, as Patrick told me last night, he was on strike and therefore I was too (I have 2 of his classes on Tuesdays). Then he continued, "I always go on strike the day after St Patrick's Day." Finally, some logic behind the infamous French laziness.

Brief Update

OK don't have much time to update this but just a quick note that the A'dam trip was AWESOME! Soooo good to see Bradley, and partake in all Amsterdam has to offer. Stayed with Brad last night in Paris and headed back to Troyes today. Back up to Paris on Thursday, and Chris gets here on Friday! Yay! :)

More later, hopefully with pictures. Happy St. Patrick's day, everyone!

Tootsie Pops

Class was OK today. I am still having difficulty with one group of terminales. It isn't so much the students as it is their prof. I ask her for copies of whatever text/image they are working on so I could study it beforehand and better prepare for a discussion with the students, but nada. So I basically get these kids and really have NOTHING to do with them. I ask them (in French and in English) if they have texts or images to work on. Silence. Anything I can help them with? Silence. Just nothing. I want to help these kids-- it's my job! But it is hard when the prof gives me nothing to work with. I managed to half-ass an hours' worth of "assistance" by referring to my freshman year Oral Comm class survival skills of how to give an effective speech. Wanna know how to use up all 10 minutes of bac babble? Speak slowly, enunciate, pause after each sentence, breathe. They did seem to appreciate this. I think next week I will print out some tongue twisters to help them with their pronounciation.

My wonderful fiance brought me lots of wish list items last weekend. Among these: Goldfish crackers (YES!!!), a small box of Bisquik (Nikki's famous pancakes, anyone??), and lil treats for my kids: Tootsie Pops. Last time I asked for Reese's peanut butter cups and, although a hit with my students, they got miserably smashed. Hence, hard candy this time around. I brought a bag for my new BTS class, since I gave out Reese's to my classes from the first half of the year.

I knew my BTS kids were getting their practice exam results back today. For me, it was another lesson in just how different the American & French education systems are. Granted, this was my responsable's class, and he was as kind as anyone could be in this scenario. I guess "kind" is relative; this is what the French are accustomed to; hence, it is not as cruel to them as it is to me. He read off every student's name, followed by a critique of their errors-- no high points, no "You did well on XY or Z" but "You did poorly on AB and C"-- and *gulp* their mark. Americans reading this, can you possibly imagine sitting there in class while your prof announces your grade to EVERYONE?! While it was good for the students who scored highly (one girl got a 17-- frickin' AMAZING), I cringed for the students who scored lower than 10. Poor things.

Luckily, the good ol' assistant was there to hand out American candy. The rest of the class period was spent chit-chatting and discussing that the chocolate-y Tootsie roll center really isn't chewing gum.

Raindrops & Teardrops

The sad thing about weekends is... they always end. My wonderful weekend came to an end just a few hours ago. I had such an amazing weekend with Jess, starting with meeting him at the train station Friday afternoon (he brought me flowers!!!), then making dinner chez moi and meeting up with some friends for drinks. Saturday was even better, with a minivan excursion to Epernay for some Champagne tasting, then back to Troyes, where my wonderful fiance had booked us a room at the nicest hotel in town. Big, cozy bed, a BATHTUB, and just all around a wonderful lil place. Sunday was mostly spent lounging in bed, cuddling, watching movies, taking baths, drinking Champagne. Then this morning it all came to an end...

Jess wanted to catch the 7:20 train, so we left the hotel, got the rest of his stuff from my apt, and headed to the train station. Alas, there wasn't actually a 7:20 train, but there was one leaving within a couple of minutes so he got a ticket for it. Our goodbye was, therefore, brief. I wanted to cry but the tears would not come. I tried to look for him on the train as it took off but didn't see him-- hopefully he saw me waving from the platform. I headed back to the hotel (heck, it was paid for and check-out was noon!!!), curled back up into bed for a couple more hours, ate breakfast, took a bath, and headed out, only to notice...

Rain. Buckets of rain. Windy, nasty, rain. And me, freshly washed & dried hair, cute but not rain-effecient shoes, a suitcase and my laptop. The weather matched my already shitty mood. By the time I got home, the tears had arrived. Then Jess texted- his plane is delayed due to the weather. Fuck you, rain. You ruin everything. Go away.

It took all my energy to drag myself through the rain again to go to class. I have a break now, so I came home lest I have a breakdown (would rather brave the rain than burst into tears in the salle de profs). I need to go grocery shopping in a bad way but can't muster the motivation. Honestly could care less right now if I starve. My heart is starving, already in Jess withdrawl. I try to take solace in the fact that I will be home in just a few short weeks, and ordinarily I think it would work, but this weather is just so miserable and depressing. All I want to do is curl up into a little ball and cry, but I know if I do I will only feel worse. Must keep smiling.

I sound like such a downer. This time was easier to say good-bye than the last time was, and that time was easier than the time prior. I guess I'm just ready to be at the stage where I never have to say good-bye to him again. I have so much to look forward to-- I get to see Bradley on Thursday, and we're going to Amsterdam! My brother will be here next week! Paris, and Prague, and Bulgaria, all with wonderful people who love me and always make me smile. So why isn't it enough?

And so, the raindrops-- and teardrops-- keep falling. But like weekends, I know that they too will eventually end.

Il Neige!

Yesterday Mere stopped by on her way to meet the others. I was in part two of my chicken soup-ing, and had to wait til it finished. But as she left, she stood, shocked, in my doorway. I looked out and sure enough-- snow! Just some flurries, and it didn't stick, but still, it was the first time I actually saw snow in Troyes (although heard it had snowed a couple other times). So yay, I did get to see my snowfall. But it is supposed to start getting warmer, which makes me happier.

JESS GETS HERE IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS!!! I am praying he can catch the 9:40 train and be in Troyes by 11:15. But he would only have an hour & twenty minutes to land, get his bags, get the RER into Paris, get the metro to Gare de L'est and make his train. I'm not holding my breath :( What is more likely is that he will have to wait & catch the noon train, getting into Troyes at 1:30. It would kill me to know he is sitting in Paris while I am waiting anxiously in Troyes, but think I will have to forgo the temptation of buying a 22E roundtrip ticket to just go up & come right back (even if it does mean sitting on a train snuggled with my honey). I am just so excited to finally see him-- it'll have been exactly 2 months since he last visited. And then, the final stretch... the next time I see him will be at San Francisco airport. :)

So everyone, keep your fingers crossed, pray to the transportation gods, whatever you can think of that may influence fate to enable Jess to catch that early train! :D

Chicken Soup

Yesterday was a long day, despite only having 3 classes (I only see my 1er class every other week, this was an off-week). I was 80% thrilled, and 20% disappointed with my TGRH1 classes. First of all, half the students showed up late or not at all. Just as well, since the ones who were on time are the generally well-behaved ones. Plus, like other assistants have pointed out, once those 2 or 3 chatty ones are MIA the others behave much better. I had an article about life in Britain, what it means to "be British," that I copied from one of the ESL magazines in the CDI (the school library). I had them take turns reading, then gave them the exercise. First it was a fill-in-the-blanks, stuff like, "The U.S. is governed by a _____, Britain is governed by a ______" (president, queen). They were, dare I say it, EAGER to shout out the answers they knew as I wrote them on the board. Next we briefly discussed stereotypes, and then I had them fill in the blanks in a chart I had made. 3 columns: French, British, American, with words filled into 2/3 of the spaces. For instance, under "French," I wrote, "vacances," left the British box blank, and under American wrote, "vacation." "HOLIDAY!!!" they shouted out. One of the more chatty/less motivated students even said to me after class, "This was a good lesson. It was... I understood. Clear." Looks like the essays & grammar from hell will have to wait ;)

My ESLV4s had it rough too. They are a fun group of jokers. But last night their prof came in and said to me, "You will give them this photo. They have 30 minutes to prep, and then they present. Write down EVERYTHING that they say, then give me your notes." I could see where this would go.... I write, "Student A had difficulty pronouncing WORD." She tells them, "Student A, the assistant said your pronounciation is terrible." That's how French teaching is. No wonder the poor kids were terrified (or, desparate-- a couple kept trying to bribe me!). So all I wrote for each individual student were their high points-- "Student A justified his reasoning by pointing out X, which was good." All criticisms were written under the "General Notes" section. I don't want to be the bad guy. These kids need praise from SOMEONE, a concept foreign to most French educators. Sigh...

I came home exhausted and had just started thinking about dinner when Rich & Laura invited me over for dinner. Chicken risotto, mmmm... props to chef Laura! Mike was over too, and we hung out til around 10. As usual, I took the chicken carcass home to make soup.

Today was OK. I finished my music lesson with my TL1s. It was the second group (I see one half one week, the second half the next week), and they are hands-down my favorite class. Fun, eager, excellent English. They enjoyed listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers and filling in the missing words to the lyrics. A couple of the guys even got into drumming along to the beat on the desks. I always leave that class with a smile. Next was another small group of terminales with their image from a hypothetical bac exam. I think I got 5 words total from the whole group, despite reminding them that they NEED to SPEAK to pass the exam. Ugh. At first I thought maybe their English is just weak, but even after trying to explain in my not-so-great French, their faces were still blank. Can't win 'em all....

And then, my BTS classes today & tomorrow are cancelled. Free day for me tomorrow (yay!). So I started the soup-making process. My cupboard of an apartment is all steamy (France doesn't believe in good ventilation systems), but smells of yummy chicken soup-- perfect for a cold, windy day like today. Since I couldn't make my hunny homemade soup when he was sick last week, I can give him some when he visits on FRIDAY (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), plus I will have enough to give to Rich & Laura as a thank-you-for-the-chicken-bones gift. Who doesn't like homemade chicken soup?!

Tomorrow I plan to be productive. Gonna finally call Neuf and see what all I have to do to officially end my contract. Gonna go in to the EDF office to ask the same thing (why spend money on a phone call, which I HATE doing in French, when the office is 5 min away?). And I am going to mail off my letter to my landlord saying I am moving out in April. In France, the law says 3 months notice, but from what I gather in the lease, he only needs 1 month notice. So I am compromising with 2 months.

Jess will be here on Friday! I am so excited. Friday night: hang out, meet a French friend of mine for a drink, then see what the other assistants are up to. The fair is in town, so we may go to that. We went last weekend, but want to see it all lit up at night. Saturday will be an adventure-- we have reserved a minivan, and Jess is going to drive me & 5 other assistants to Epernay for some champagne tasting. Miam miam! Then Saturday and Sunday night, Jess reserved us a room at the nicest hotel in Troyes, saving us from 2 nights of my child-sized bed and hot water deficient shower.

When there's chicken soup involved, life is good.