Good Days

Lately, my Good Days are made of:

• Discovering the ridiculous videos my siblings recorded on my computer before I left home,
• People telling me my French has improved (two in the last three days!),
• Chocolate Mousse for school dessert,
• All my dishes on the clean side of the sink (okay, not yet, but I'm about to wash them...really I am),
• Learning how to edit clips in iMovie (now I want a camcorder!),
• Making plans to hang out with friends, and
• My students learning AND having fun.

What's making your days good lately?

Back in France

Sorry for the radio silence. I've been enjoying two wonderful weeks home with my family and friends. And since those are most of the people who read this blog, I didn't feel too bad about just savoring my time at home.

It was wonderful: Christmas cookies, tree decorating, snuggling on the couch, Just Dance 2 marathons, Lego Rock band, carols, dishes, all the clothes I've been missing, shopping and so many other great moments.

But yesterday I had to make the long trek back to France. A friend of mine in college used to do happies and crappies on her blog, and all day I kept thinking of my own. Traveling is always a little stressful, but there are always good things too:

Happy: Spending two weeks with my family and friends.
Crappy: Spending only two weeks with my family and friends.

Happy: Being in the first group of people sent to a new security line in the Chicago airport. Hello, no wait!!

Crappy: Lugging my broken suitcase through the Chicago airport and the Paris metro. I wanted wheels.

Happy: The mom next to me in the Chicago airport reading "Anne of Green Gables" to her kids.

Crappy: The French man who sat in my seat on the airplane, then acted like it was all my fault.  Also, United's Economy Plus seating. I'm pretty sure they just squished the other seats together to give more leg room to the people willing to pay $97 extra. My legs did not appreciate it.

Happy: Two New Years! I celebrated Paris' midnight in Chicago with my family and another one over the Atlantic ocean!

Happy: Free transportation in the Ile-de-France for New Year's Day! No 10 plus euros to get from the airport to the train station in Paris.

Crappy: I was careful not to fly in on a Sunday, because the busses don't run on Sundays in my small town...however, they also don't run on holidays...like New Years Day. Stranded at the train station in the spitting rain? Not so much fun.

Happy: The women who gave me a ride home. Nice to know there are still nice strangers in the world.

Crappy: Returning to my really cold apartment.

Happy: Sliding my feet into my brand new Muk-Luk slippers to keep them warm.

I miss you all already!

Homeward Bound

I'm going home for Christmas on Sunday! And I'm ecstatic! It makes me want to use ridiculous amounts of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I can't wait to see my friends and family.  I can hardly believe I've been gone for 3 months.


Other things I am excited about at home (in no specific order):

• Hugs
• Cuddling
• Having other people to talk with in my house
• More than three rooms to walk between
• My straightener 
• Skim milk
• A proper sized pillow
• Double oven (Two ovens! and they're both way bigger than my laptop!)
• Counter space
• A well stocked pantry, including multiple kinds of cereal and peanut butter!
• American style bread
• Bagels
• Wheat Thins
• Tacos
• Bacon
• Pancakes
• A full size fridge
• Speaking the same language as people in stores and banks and on the street
• Access to a car
• Snow for Christmas
• My dog and my cat
• The rest of my clothes!
• Prices in dollars
• A washer and dryer (What luxury!)

It's No Use Crying...

{Someday, I'm going to post one of these on a Friday again...promise. Or eventually, I'll work my way through the week and back to Friday again.}

To continue our tour through Fun French Facts*... If you look to your left, you will see:

The Milk Aisle

You'll notice the lack of refrigeration.

That's right. It's not refrigerated. In France, almost all the milk is UHT (Ultra-High Temperature) Processed. It doesn't need to be refrigerated until it's opened.  It's magic milk, created through science that I don't fully understand, but which involves heating the milk way above boiling for a few seconds.

Then it can live on the shelf for 6 to 9 months. I know what you're thinking because it's the same thing I thought at first: eww. Most people in the United States are used to connecting milk with cold. But with all the microbes killed, it's perfectly safe.

But this processing method hasn't caught on in the States, probably because most people there share this presumption about milk.  Some people in France say it tastes just the same as pasteurized milk, and it is very similar, but I'm ridiculously picky about my milk and how "thick" it tastes.

Things I have used my UHT milk for: tea, cereal, cooking.
Times it made me gag: When I tried to make chocolate milk.
(However, it was also not skim milk, which might have played some part in the gagging.)

So I shop for my milk in the tiny refrigerated milk section:

But this means I miss out on the fun of buying milk in boxes.

Think how much easier this must be to transport. Also, you can buy five or six boxes at once, keep them in the pantry and never worry about running out of milk after the stores close at 7pm.

What do you think? Would you ever drink this milk? Or at least try it?

*Credit goes to my good friend, B, for the non-Friday alliterative title.

Fun French...Saturday?

Just wanted to share this with you. These jeans will make you "booty-licious." Hahaha...ha. 

So awkward.

P.S. Sorry, it isn't Friday. I forgot this week! Love you all.

Edit: This says: "You'll eat better"...It's part of Diesel jeans' "Be Stupid" campaign, which is a lot ridiculous. 

Some Scenes from a Thanksgiving in France

{Source}

The Pilgrims didn't come to France.

So there's no Thanksgiving here. 

Unless you happen to be an American ex-pat. With a craving for pumpkin pie.
My Thanksgiving in France was a little different, but wonderful.


I worked on Thursday, spending the day telling French children that Thanksgiving is a day for family, food and thinking about all the good things that have happened in the past year. 

I'm thankful that I have a job that I enjoy, 
with students I love.

Thursday night (or rather, very early Friday morning) I Skype-ed with my extended family at my grandparents' house. Best moment? My grandpa's surprised face when my cousin put the computer in his lap. "Can she hear me? Well, isn't that the darndest thing." This is a man who doesn't even use the telephone. I can't say it enough: Skype=Magic.

I'm thankful, SO thankful, for my wonderful family. 

Their support and love are so important to me.

I'm also thankful for the technology that lets me stay 

in touch with  family and friends.

Friday, I celebrated with most of the other Americans I know and a British friend, who we introduced to Thanksgiving. Poor girl. We might have put her in a food coma. We all made so much food. It was delicious, and we piled it all on our plates. No French-style courses for us today!

I'm thankful for my friends: the old, 
whom I miss like crazy, and the new.

{Yum. Yum. Yum.}

The one thing I had to have for my Thanksgiving was pumpkin pie. But there is no canned pumpkin in France, and most of you know that I'm not much of a chef. I managed, however, to make my mom's wonderful pie crust by myself for the first time, to buy a pumpkin and to roast it up. 

I'm thankful for pumpkin pie and comfort food. 

And learning to cook.

{Hey, what's this on my shoulder?    Ahh, it's so big!
Boom-boxes are so last Thanksgiving. Pumpkins are my accessory choice }

{I think it knows what's coming. }

And it actually turned into a pie!

{Kirsty had her first pumpkin pie!}

The next day, I had my very own "Black Saturday" at IKEA with Kirsty and Brad. IKEA had almost all the crowds and none of the sales of a Black Friday. But I didn't have to get up at 3 in the morning. And I now have a cutting board!

I'm thankful that there are countries where 

the words "Black Friday" have no meaning.

I'm also thankful for the Swedish.

These are just some of the things I'm currently thankful for. What about you? Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

My Triumph lasted till the Drums

{Emily Dickinson: 1212}

{Source}

It was such a great day. An excellent day. I got to really teach today. Really.

Not just help another teacher, not just take a group of students and play a game someone else planned, not just stand in the corner and provide proper pronunciation when asked. Because this is what my "teaching" has been for the most part, so far. It's been good, but far from real teaching. I've been using the time to get a feel for the classrooms here, for the way things are run, and for how much English my twelve classes know.

But now, I'm feeling ready to teach. And today, I got a chance to share a Thanksgiving lesson with six classes. Some went better than others. I had problems with time management, with explaining what stuffing is in French and with games that were a little too difficult.

But some of it went splendidly, and all of it felt fabulous. I'm not sure how to explain the surge of energy and joy I get when I'm in front of a class. It makes me think this is surely what I'm supposed to do with my life. Now to see if the feeling lasts or if it's just a new-experience-high.  I hope it's here to stay.

~

Then, after I was finished with my classes, I went to the school library to plan my lessons for next week and wait for my ride. As I was talking to the librarian, she corrected the pronunciation and gender of my use of the word "color." It was not le, it was la, and I was pronouncing the vowels incorrectly. Then she kindly explained (I think) that the word I had been using was an impolite one. A swear word. I didn't ask for specifics.

To review: Today was great, but I was quite possibly swearing at my classes all day. And that is kind of how life goes.