should i give up or should i just keep chasing pavements?

grrrr... my last post was accidentally deleted and i hate hate hate hate when that happens.

alors les vacances d'hiver: french people don't like working more than 8 weeks at a time so these holidays are winter holidays, 2 months after xmas holidays.

i am in fécamp with cedric at his parents' place in haute normandie. it's chilly and gloomy but very beautiful. reminds me of both vancouver and wales. there are actual hills around here, something that the southern béziers area i'm in doesn't seem to have. cedric's house has an amazing view of the entire town cuz they're up on a hill.

we got here yesterday morning by covoiturage and it took 4 hours to get from nantes to rouen and cedric's parents ouanassa and yves picked us up and drove us here to fécamp. the drive was a lot of nothing and french countryside. the cows here are usually an off-white color but the weird thing is how unhealthy they all look. i don't know if it's the french variety of cow or something, but they all look ill and weak. there is a lot of mistletoe on all the bare trees and i think mistletoe is hilarious. just shows up in little balls and hangs out for the winter, then the trees kick it out and grow back their leaves.

during the drive from rouen to fécamp cedric's parents bought us each a little apple tart that is a typical normand dessert. it's delicious; a mix of apple pie and cake, with an almond thing on top.

when we got home i met their dog soan who is apparently very mean to strangers but she seems sweet enough to me. and i got to cooking some daal for dinner. cedric cut carrots and had coffee and he'd like everyone to know so. i made the daal as spicy as i would for me and cedric's parents loved it so i was happy. cedric had a hard time though cuz he's lost all his karam tolerance, poor thing.

then we hung out and played a game called jungle speed which was funny and involved grabbing a totem after matching shapes and colors.

and now we're heading out to visit fécamp and around and try and find a château for me!

craving: spicy hot apple cider

currently listening to: best for last- adele

say it loud and it's like music playing, say it soft and it's almost like praying

huzzah! i had a fun weekend!

friday was a get together at jennifer's place (assistant from washington) and we ate and drank and played charades/pictionary/taboo in french. it was a lot of fun and we giggled and yelled to our heart's content. and i had a hard time miming 'modem.'

saturday was a party at jaime's place and that was also fun. mariana and i went for sushi before and it was pretty decent, but the place was owned by japanese people so i did actually expect more. there was a woman singing outside this one restaurant and her voice was over loudspeakers on the rooftop of the polygone, which is where all the restaurants are. and she was kind of a disaster. i thought it was karaoke and so we walked around looking for it and then we saw her. and then we quickly walked away.

sunday i didn't do much, read and worked and slept a lot.

the pav bhaji i made a while ago has lasted this whole week! so now i'm kinda tired of it. and i will go and cook now cuz i need something for lunch tomorrow.

and that's all i have to say. not a very interesting post.

craving: strawberries and chocolate
currently listening to: give me one reason- tracy chapman

you're a song written by the hands of god, don't get me wrong, but this might sound to you a bit odd

alora. my teacher canceled classes today so i slept in. and i did nothing of any use to anyone. went to the market in the morning and bought half a kg of strawberries (already finished em) and veggies for pav bhaji. came home and had a breakfast of chips and salsa and cheerios and milk, with sliced banana. and then i took a nap. it was a fitful bit of sleep cuz i had a scary dream, got very cold and then very hot.

then i got ready for my physio session and went. i am so much better now, there is barely any pain left and i'm up to 20 minutes of yoga a day. romain massaged me and we chatted as usual. he told me that this week they have a new trainee (sidenote: last week they had 2 trainees from the school i teach at, and both just happened to be students of mine. it was a bit awkward cuz now both students have seen me in my bra and each of them have refastened my bra for me when i'm all done and before i get off the table. super.) from the school and that she isn't working out so great. i immediately started thinking about who it could be haha. then he put the electrodes on my back, got me a hot pack, and left without turning the electrode thingies on.

so there i was face down on the table with my bra unhooked, electrodes on my back and a hot pack on top of them, shouting various things to get someone to come into the room. i did this for about 5 minutes and nobody came and i felt really silly cuz romain would only be back at the end of my 15 minutes. so i hooked my bra, removed the hot pack, picked up the electrode controller, and put my coat on hospital gown style and went out into the hallway. and for a place that's usually empty, there were suddenly lots of people around. fortunately romain saw me and came quickly to find out what was going on, which is good cuz i couldn't tell which one was him cuz i wasn't wearing my glasses. he apologized and got the electrodes pulsing and left. and linda came by 15 minutes to remove them and made fun of 'the little walk i took earlier.' and i saw the new trainee- one of my least favorite students- chilling in the waiting area, tapping a pack of cigarettes against her lap (what? thees ees la france after all), waiting to leave for the day. she did say hi to me though.

i came home and made another zucchini ricotta fritter cuz i was hungry and i have 4 zucchini's worth of batter. gladys popped round to have me change jean pierre's homepage to his email account. then i chilled and did useless things online until i was ready to make the pav bhaji.

it didn't take long and i did make a big mess but it got done and it's very yummy. though it tastes like something's missing. i think i should have used more cauliflower. or maybe let the tomatoes cook longer. or something. and gladys popped by again cuz her mouse stopped working but by the time i got upstairs to take a look, it was working and she felt sheepish. she gave me some homemade chocolate cake though! and it was crazy moist. and heavenly. and dense. and everything a chocolate cake should be and more. so i must have her recipe.

i did some cleaning. ate some pav bhaji with a tortilla and then with some tortilla chips (just didn't feel like having it with bread, gosh). and then i took a shower. and tweezed my eyebrows which i both hate doing and really suck at.

and here i am waiting for my hair to dry. i have no morning classes tomorrow so i can sleep in again!

craving: mommy's hot apple cider
currently listening to: insatiable- savage garden

'scuse me, i'm sorry, i'm really such a lady

thundercats ho it's been a while. i told my madre that it was cuz i don't do much and so a lot of what i write would just be me trying to find new ways to write the same, boring stuff, and she just said, "so? do it anyway" and so i shall, so i shall!

so today, tuesday was a fairly uneventful day, like most of my days here. i went to work and my first class was 11 year olds learning directions and how to describe where things are. so i drew a house, a tree and some flowers on the board and had them come up and draw an object anywhere they wanted and we then described where it was in relation to my wobbly house and droopy flowers and broccoli tree. they did pretty well and i was happy with their sentences: "the fat girl is next to the flowers.;" "the pig is behind the window;" "the roast chicken is on the house." then i came home for a nap and food.

i recently rediscovered the joys of fried egg on toast. white bread cuz i live on the edge like that. but it is so yummmy. and i found cheerios at the grocery store and indulged. so my crappy carb intake will be extra high this next few weeks. hoooray! i had 2 bananas to try and compensate or make myself feel better or something (yes i know life doesn't work like that, sheesh).

after lunch i had a group of 3 12 year old students and we worked on clothing. there were only 3 because for weeks their class had terrorized me, not paid attention, yelled, poked, punched and whined and so i finally told the teacher that it was a royal waste of time. she agreed to send me 5 kids at a time and that way they'd have to shut up and listen. we covered clothing vocab with pictures and then flipped through people magazine and i had them describe what demi and ashton and snooki were wearing. they told me they enjoyed being with me cuz i didn't yell. i told them that it wasn't my job and then socratic-ly got them to realize that it was their fault their teacher yells in the first place. (pats self on back) not that they'll listen anyway.

after that was another lame group that semi-participated. i showed them pics in the magazine and had them tell me what the people were doing in the pictures. they had very little imagination though which was sad. and they got very excited at a picture of orlando bloom which makes no sense cuz they're 12! they also think tracy jordan is a loser so clearly they don't know what they're talking about.

my last class was a rubbish group of 13 year olds and they just didn't care to learn about clothing or fashion or anything in english so i killed time by getting them to try and decipher the various ads in that people mag i had. and i noticed a strange trend: people magazine advertises everything a person needs to be clean: toothpaste, mouth wash, electric toothbrush, body wash and body lotion. i don't really know what this means. the other ads were (cuz i know you're just going to ask me later): hershey's chocolate, a diamond watch, armani cologne, estee lauder perfume, american express, hostess cupcakes, got milk (so milk?), goldfish crackers, pepperidge farm cookies, starbucks coffee, pringles and i forget the rest.

then i walked home, dropped my stuff off and went to the grocery store to get some ricotta. and i came home and made these zucchini ricotta fritters that are amazing. so amazing that within 5 minutes of me starting to cook them, my landlady came over to ask what i was cooking cuz she could smell them all the way in her house! i was slightly bummed though cuz i couldn't figure out how to get them the right consistency, they're slightly soft and maybe undercooked even though i left them in the pan for over 3 times the amount of time the recipe called for. still yummay so whatev. so my first time cooking with ricotta= success.

and now i'm sleepy so...

sidenote: today i learned that someone has created a twitter page for helen keller and every single tweet is something like "khusaaaaarrh" or some other sound a deaf person who has never heard language would make, and i am really disturbed by this.

craving: blood orange frozen yogurt from pinkberry
currently listening to: bedrock- young money