i haven't written cuz i've spent the past 2 weeks looking after my neck and back. they wigged out once again, out of the blue, or maybe not... i cleaned my shower and perhaps held myself in angles my neck and shoulder muscles were rather against. docteur bacle prescribed anti-inflammatory meds and pain killers for a week. 3 days of not moving, naps, reading, naps, online tv, naps, with food every now and then. and unbelievable pain. constant, and i would try and hide from it by holding my neck in a certain position, but then the pain would find me again, and start up. skipped work for a week too. got better-ish and i got the docteur to give me an ordinance for physiotherapy.
first session was nice, a massage and strange electrodes pulsing for 15 mins. went to work on tuesday the 18th and had a long but uneventful day. second session on wednesday and it hurt. a lot. she pulled and massaged and was in awe at how tightly strained my muscles were. she would poke and marvel that i wasn't in more pain. wednesday night there was more pain since she had prodded me a bit too much. she explained that my muscles were constantly contracted, even when i was asleep or relaxed. so they needed to be coaxed out of that state and into their normal relaxed state and that would take time. lots and lots of time. and she forbade me to do anything vigorous or lift heavy things or exert myself in any way.
thursday, after work where i helped 11 year olds describe me, not the best idea though i was happy with their english. "she has got a long nose" "she has got very large eyebrows" she has got small ears" she has got yellow teeth" they giggled and yelled sentences at me and i corrected and allowed them to insult as long as it was in english. they also thought it was hilarious that some of the boys were taller than me. mariana, the spanish assistant came over and helped me clean up and i lifted and did too much cuz that night there was a lot of pain. but it was a pain i recognized, that muscular owwwww after you've gone and worked out more than you should have. it's a pain i usually like, but this didn't count cuz i haven't worked out in 4 months. what i did was lift a few chairs out of the way of mariana vacuuming for me (such a sweet and kind friend) and i carried a really heavy vacuum cleaner down from my landlady's house.
friday (yesterday) was frightening. i hate hate hate hate hate writing statements of purpose or letters of intent. because i don't really have any intent or purpose other than to study and learn and maybe figure something out along the way. my life has no direction and that's how i like it. so why is that not good enough for graduate admissions folk? anyway, i sent out one of my applications after printing it at my landlady's place. i interrupted jean pierre's 80 year old cousin's birthday dinner, but they were kind enough to invite me to have dessert and champagne with them. gladys had made a yummy upside down apple tart with caramelized lemon rind. sooo good.
so after i mailed out the application i had time before my physio session so i went home to hang up laundry and ashwitha called! i talked to her in the garage and it was such a pleasant surprise. she was worried about my intent/ purpose or lack thereof. who knew a phone call could make me so happy? everyone needs to be stuck in a village without friends for a bit to really appreciate all the little things.
physio was better since i told her how much pain i was in and she said she wouldn't poke or pull. she massaged me and it was soooo nice but never for long enough, barely 10 minutes. then back to the electrodes and they pulsed for longer than usual and i realized that i am not so fond of lying shirtless on my stomach with my head over a hole. i used to think that i'd love a massage table cuz then i could lie on my stomach and breathe at the same time and what a great invention it is! not anymore. i kept shifting around trying to find a position in which my forehead wouldn't hurt so much from being pressed into the hard mattress. and that annoyed the electrodes. and they're scary cuz they pulse electricity into my muscles! but i felt no pain after for a good hour so it was worth it.
then as i was making chapathis, ben called! 2 phone calls in a day! and we chatted about what to do for the feb holidays while i had my hands in chapathi dough. then i rolled em out with a bottle of wine, which was a little tricky. they were not even remotely round in shape but that's fine with me. and i made a guacamole with 4 avocados, 2 tomatoes, half an onion and half a capsicum, 2 teeny red chilies, garlic and real coriander. yummm. and david and i watched the latest grey's and it was a good night. but for the pain.
saturday (today): woke up at 9am cuz my neck and back were angry. stayed in bed trying to find a comfy painless position for 2 hours, drifting in and out of sleep. then i got up and had oatmeal so i could take a pain killer. and i've been trying various sitting positions with a hot pack to get rid of the pain cuz i wanna head to beziers this evening to see other people.
and here i am. no verdict on whether i'll be going out or not. and i'm thinking of what to make for lunch.
craving: a way to remove my shoulder muscles, bang out the tension like they do with red meat on top chef and reinsert em, happy and relaxed and pain free, so i can finally go running and biking and do yoga, work out and dance in this south of france sunshine.
currently listening to: bad romance- lady gaga
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
every time i close my eyes, i see my name in shining lights, a different city every night oh my!
bonne annee to you all!
i am home in teeny old serignan again after a fabulous 2 weeks in nantes, fontenay and la baule. this post is going to be enormous so i suggest you get yourself a snack and into a comfy position.
since my last post was 10 days ago, i will do shorter recaps of whatever i remember. this is important to me since i seem to have lost all my pictures from fontenay with ben.
fontenay: while we were here, we really didn't do much. the weather was gloomy and rainy throughout and so we stayed in and did lazy things. one of the evenings i made a giant chicken biryani for ben's friends and they inhaled it, so i think it was a success even though i couldn't taste it. i made myself a veggie one and a raita in case i went a little chili powder happy. they all said it was delicious and ben was quite thrilled that the house smelled like india for a day after. his mother francoise tasted it too and thought it made her hiss and fan her mouth, she said it was quite good.
we visited la rochelle for a day and it was rainy and so i didn't see much of the supposedly beautiful city. we went into a mall for around 45 minutes since the boys could really only handle that much at a time. they didn't buy anything as usual and neither did i, though i fawned over a lovely sweater-dress.
nantes: i took a train and ange met me at the station. we public-transported back to her apartment. she lives with her aunt and her family but they were out of town for the holidays and we had the place to ourselves. that night we stayed in and watched french reality tv (about as awful as american reality tv but in french so no painful nasal accents) and made crepes for dinner. she made the crepes and i made the filling and it was delicious. crepes with salty caramel filling for dessert and we were stuffed. woke up lovely late the next day and headed to her family's house an hour outside nantes in a village called saffre.
it was xmas eve and so the whole family was in party mode and ange has 5 siblings all under the age of 10. 2 year old princesse, 3 year old la roy shama, 5 year old la reine pistis, 7 year old noblesse and 9 year old jane de la neige and yes those are their real names. there were plenty of champagne and chocolates so we were all in very good moods and the kids were highly entertaining. they would call my name and when i replied "oui?" they would giggle and run away. this kept up for an hour or so until their mother yelled at them to stop.
ange's aunt and her incredibly misbehaved 4 year old son came over for the festivities which included ridiculously loud african music and much dancing and drinking (chocolate eating on the part of the children, bad, bad idea). ange and i spend much of the night gift wrapping last minute gifts for the kids. they were all getting at least 6 gifts apiece.
the custom in france seems to be to get everything over with on the 24th and then do nothing on the 25th. so all our wrapping was just for 30 minutes or so and then the brats ripped them all open. big waste; i think i'm very anti the whole concept wrapping paper. all my gifts were without any kind of wrapping or embellishments. but before gifts was dinner and ange's mom was super sweet and separated all the veggies from the meat so i could actually eat! and it was delicious: a veggie stew with chick peas and cous cous and they had some harissa so i spiced it up. and dessert was 2 cakes, one with obnoxiously bright layers that was super yummy except for the fruit cake dry fruit bits (i hate those and picked them out). and the other was a buche de noel which is a christmas log cake and it was supermarket bought and tasted like plastic. and an assortment of chocolate and champagne- the theme for the night.
putting the kids to bed was difficult to say the least. and once done we were pooped and passed out. tried to wake up late the next day but there were 5 kids screaming and jumping and crying and whining and other kid things. so we lazed around and tried to ignore all the noise. i felt like the grinch at the beginning of the cartoon "all the noise, noise noise, noise, noise noise!" so the next afternoon we split and headed back to nantes and the empty apartment.
and we chilled and relaxed and slept and hung out with a couple of ange's friends. it was lazy and full of french tv shows. and then we packed up and headed to la baule by train.
wednesday the 29th of december: christian met us at the train station and it was a very happy moment seeing him again my french father :) that day all of us arrived and we were a group of 6: me, ange, yana from ukraine who is studying in paris, asuka from japan who is also studying in paris, julia from russia who came down just for her winter break and her friend ana. and we all had a blast just talking and cooking and eating and hanging out in front of the fire. and christian kept us well plied with wine and croissants and pastries and other unhealthy things. and every night we'd sample some of his 'digestive' alcohols that would burn like a raging fire going down and leave a nasty taste in your mouth. needless to say tongues were loosened and everyone was rather jolly.
and new year's eve: we did a huge appetizer and cheese dinner with bruno and pascal mainguy- good people who helped out with the camp. it was awesome and we ate and ate and ate. there were over 50 assorted appetizers like in the movies; mini pieces of bread with spreads and caviar, foie gras, salami, sausage, veggie ones with tapanade, cheese, jams, and puffed pastry ones with escargots, veggies, cheeses, mini sandwiches, all these one bite taste explosions that were oh so so delectable. and then there was over 10 different types of cheese from basics like brie and camembert to 4 different chevres and a few brebis and then even 5 hard cheeses that were so mouthwatering. there was even a super bright orange cheese that was over 6 months old! and to accompany was champagne with the starters and a bordeaux from 1989! it was so yummy! and old! and he even brought out my favorite type of wine for dessert- a sweet red dessert wine from perpignan. and desserts were little mini desserts; eclairs, macarons, chocolate cake bites, fruit tarts, pastries with chocolate and some without, with berries and other fruits. and there was a homemade chocolate cake that was the perfection of a moist cake and so so very decadent, i must get the recipe. and there was also a buche de noel with some cointreau in it that was interesting. and this was followed by some delicious passion fruit and sicilian lemon liqueurs. yum yum yum.
the next day, for the first day of the year we all slept in and woke up super late and did nothing all day. talked and lounged in front of the fire and ate leftovers from the night before.
then on sunday corinne drove ange and i back to nantes and i headed back home to serignan.
it was a good good break. and thank you to all of you who let me stay and fed me and were just amazing!
and now today, tuesday the 4th of january: last night 3 of 4 teachers contacted me to let me know that i wouldn't be needed so i only had one class. woke up nice and late (catching up on sleep after the holidays) and ate a giant breakfast which consisted of oatmeal and leftover soba noodle stir fry from the night before. and i watched ugly betty episodes and read until i had to leave for work.
i had 12 year olds and i decided to work on new year's resolutions with them: a brilliantly apt and creative idea for the first week of january. and they needed to revise "i will..." i made them each come up with around 5 or so and they were quiet-ish and really well behaved. this was one of my nightmare groups so i think that their teacher must have scared them into being good. some of my favorite resolutions were " i will ride my motorbike;" "i will misbehave less;" "i will go;" and "i will not kill the children." and then they asked me how to say 'i love you' in tamil and i was stumped.
i got home and pottered around, cooked myself some yummy masala rice with red pepper, tomatoes, carrot and onion. and got to work on contacting professors for letters of recommendation for the programs i'm applying to for next year.
i am so so so scared about applying and what i'm going to do next year in general. when i'm browsing websites and getting info, i actually start sweating a little.
phew!
craving: a moist lemon pound cake
currently listening to: ariel salvaro blabbing to me on skype :)
i am home in teeny old serignan again after a fabulous 2 weeks in nantes, fontenay and la baule. this post is going to be enormous so i suggest you get yourself a snack and into a comfy position.
since my last post was 10 days ago, i will do shorter recaps of whatever i remember. this is important to me since i seem to have lost all my pictures from fontenay with ben.
fontenay: while we were here, we really didn't do much. the weather was gloomy and rainy throughout and so we stayed in and did lazy things. one of the evenings i made a giant chicken biryani for ben's friends and they inhaled it, so i think it was a success even though i couldn't taste it. i made myself a veggie one and a raita in case i went a little chili powder happy. they all said it was delicious and ben was quite thrilled that the house smelled like india for a day after. his mother francoise tasted it too and thought it made her hiss and fan her mouth, she said it was quite good.
we visited la rochelle for a day and it was rainy and so i didn't see much of the supposedly beautiful city. we went into a mall for around 45 minutes since the boys could really only handle that much at a time. they didn't buy anything as usual and neither did i, though i fawned over a lovely sweater-dress.
nantes: i took a train and ange met me at the station. we public-transported back to her apartment. she lives with her aunt and her family but they were out of town for the holidays and we had the place to ourselves. that night we stayed in and watched french reality tv (about as awful as american reality tv but in french so no painful nasal accents) and made crepes for dinner. she made the crepes and i made the filling and it was delicious. crepes with salty caramel filling for dessert and we were stuffed. woke up lovely late the next day and headed to her family's house an hour outside nantes in a village called saffre.
it was xmas eve and so the whole family was in party mode and ange has 5 siblings all under the age of 10. 2 year old princesse, 3 year old la roy shama, 5 year old la reine pistis, 7 year old noblesse and 9 year old jane de la neige and yes those are their real names. there were plenty of champagne and chocolates so we were all in very good moods and the kids were highly entertaining. they would call my name and when i replied "oui?" they would giggle and run away. this kept up for an hour or so until their mother yelled at them to stop.
ange's aunt and her incredibly misbehaved 4 year old son came over for the festivities which included ridiculously loud african music and much dancing and drinking (chocolate eating on the part of the children, bad, bad idea). ange and i spend much of the night gift wrapping last minute gifts for the kids. they were all getting at least 6 gifts apiece.
the custom in france seems to be to get everything over with on the 24th and then do nothing on the 25th. so all our wrapping was just for 30 minutes or so and then the brats ripped them all open. big waste; i think i'm very anti the whole concept wrapping paper. all my gifts were without any kind of wrapping or embellishments. but before gifts was dinner and ange's mom was super sweet and separated all the veggies from the meat so i could actually eat! and it was delicious: a veggie stew with chick peas and cous cous and they had some harissa so i spiced it up. and dessert was 2 cakes, one with obnoxiously bright layers that was super yummy except for the fruit cake dry fruit bits (i hate those and picked them out). and the other was a buche de noel which is a christmas log cake and it was supermarket bought and tasted like plastic. and an assortment of chocolate and champagne- the theme for the night.
putting the kids to bed was difficult to say the least. and once done we were pooped and passed out. tried to wake up late the next day but there were 5 kids screaming and jumping and crying and whining and other kid things. so we lazed around and tried to ignore all the noise. i felt like the grinch at the beginning of the cartoon "all the noise, noise noise, noise, noise noise!" so the next afternoon we split and headed back to nantes and the empty apartment.
and we chilled and relaxed and slept and hung out with a couple of ange's friends. it was lazy and full of french tv shows. and then we packed up and headed to la baule by train.
wednesday the 29th of december: christian met us at the train station and it was a very happy moment seeing him again my french father :) that day all of us arrived and we were a group of 6: me, ange, yana from ukraine who is studying in paris, asuka from japan who is also studying in paris, julia from russia who came down just for her winter break and her friend ana. and we all had a blast just talking and cooking and eating and hanging out in front of the fire. and christian kept us well plied with wine and croissants and pastries and other unhealthy things. and every night we'd sample some of his 'digestive' alcohols that would burn like a raging fire going down and leave a nasty taste in your mouth. needless to say tongues were loosened and everyone was rather jolly.
and new year's eve: we did a huge appetizer and cheese dinner with bruno and pascal mainguy- good people who helped out with the camp. it was awesome and we ate and ate and ate. there were over 50 assorted appetizers like in the movies; mini pieces of bread with spreads and caviar, foie gras, salami, sausage, veggie ones with tapanade, cheese, jams, and puffed pastry ones with escargots, veggies, cheeses, mini sandwiches, all these one bite taste explosions that were oh so so delectable. and then there was over 10 different types of cheese from basics like brie and camembert to 4 different chevres and a few brebis and then even 5 hard cheeses that were so mouthwatering. there was even a super bright orange cheese that was over 6 months old! and to accompany was champagne with the starters and a bordeaux from 1989! it was so yummy! and old! and he even brought out my favorite type of wine for dessert- a sweet red dessert wine from perpignan. and desserts were little mini desserts; eclairs, macarons, chocolate cake bites, fruit tarts, pastries with chocolate and some without, with berries and other fruits. and there was a homemade chocolate cake that was the perfection of a moist cake and so so very decadent, i must get the recipe. and there was also a buche de noel with some cointreau in it that was interesting. and this was followed by some delicious passion fruit and sicilian lemon liqueurs. yum yum yum.
the next day, for the first day of the year we all slept in and woke up super late and did nothing all day. talked and lounged in front of the fire and ate leftovers from the night before.
then on sunday corinne drove ange and i back to nantes and i headed back home to serignan.
it was a good good break. and thank you to all of you who let me stay and fed me and were just amazing!
and now today, tuesday the 4th of january: last night 3 of 4 teachers contacted me to let me know that i wouldn't be needed so i only had one class. woke up nice and late (catching up on sleep after the holidays) and ate a giant breakfast which consisted of oatmeal and leftover soba noodle stir fry from the night before. and i watched ugly betty episodes and read until i had to leave for work.
i had 12 year olds and i decided to work on new year's resolutions with them: a brilliantly apt and creative idea for the first week of january. and they needed to revise "i will..." i made them each come up with around 5 or so and they were quiet-ish and really well behaved. this was one of my nightmare groups so i think that their teacher must have scared them into being good. some of my favorite resolutions were " i will ride my motorbike;" "i will misbehave less;" "i will go;" and "i will not kill the children." and then they asked me how to say 'i love you' in tamil and i was stumped.
i got home and pottered around, cooked myself some yummy masala rice with red pepper, tomatoes, carrot and onion. and got to work on contacting professors for letters of recommendation for the programs i'm applying to for next year.
i am so so so scared about applying and what i'm going to do next year in general. when i'm browsing websites and getting info, i actually start sweating a little.
phew!
craving: a moist lemon pound cake
currently listening to: ariel salvaro blabbing to me on skype :)
Monday, December 20, 2010
she said it's cold outside and she hands me a raincoat
and hello again. i really need to get on the ball with this thing don't i? i hate having these huge gaps in between my posts.
i am in vendée with ben and his mom. the village is called fontenay and it is bigger than sérignan! they even have a mall and an xmas market! sérignan didn't even try to put up a market and béziers' is pretty sad.
friday morning, karl, the cooking teacher at school, drove me up to la roche sur yon. the drive was 6 hours and pretty fun. we talked a lot about french food and my options as a vegetarian. i will be coming in and joining his classes when he does veggie dishes next semester so i am super stoked to finally learn quiches and tarts and ratatouille and stuff! i took a train to nantes and ben met me at the station. that night i met quite a few of his friends who all play the guitar really well, and when we were walking home it had snowed! i didn't have my camera though. it all melted by the time we woke up on saturday.
saturday: woke up really late and brunched with ben and cedric. i had this strange baked camembert with honey on bread. and some over-dressed salad. and it was crazy expensive. then we walked around but it started raining so we decided to get going to vendée. we piled into the car, ben gave a couple friends lifts up there and we got to his mom's place around 9. then we had dinner- a soup of mixed veggies and too much black pepper and no salt. with bread of course and clementines for dessert. i'm pretty sure clementines are just mandarins here cuz they look and taste the same. then we went out to visit his friends at night and talked until very late. it's cold and a quite village town so there isn't much else to do.
sunday, woke up late and walked around the town looking at the xmas market which was teeeny. and we went to the mall but i didn't get to look around much, with 3 guys they could only stand shopping for an hour or so. and none of them got any of their gift shopping done. came home and relaxed and talked. i showered finally! and we had a lazy dinner and channel surfed till we were pooped- around 11 haha. then we went to bed.
monday: woke up at 10 after a very good night's sleep and had some brioche and homemade banana berry jam. i don't know what type of berry though. don't know what the plan is for today; the weather is cold and gloomy.
all we hear on the radio these days is the snow in paris and the north and in london. i cant go anywhere without hearing about it! it's pretty crazy! people everywhere are stranded and i am very glad i didn't decide to travel out of the country.
i am learning a lot of french youth slang from ben and his friends and it is all very amusing. i just can't really tell the difference between the very impolite and the crude. which everyone else finds hilarious.
craving: spicy spicy indian chinese food and a hot tub
currently listening to: french talk radio
i am in vendée with ben and his mom. the village is called fontenay and it is bigger than sérignan! they even have a mall and an xmas market! sérignan didn't even try to put up a market and béziers' is pretty sad.
friday morning, karl, the cooking teacher at school, drove me up to la roche sur yon. the drive was 6 hours and pretty fun. we talked a lot about french food and my options as a vegetarian. i will be coming in and joining his classes when he does veggie dishes next semester so i am super stoked to finally learn quiches and tarts and ratatouille and stuff! i took a train to nantes and ben met me at the station. that night i met quite a few of his friends who all play the guitar really well, and when we were walking home it had snowed! i didn't have my camera though. it all melted by the time we woke up on saturday.
saturday: woke up really late and brunched with ben and cedric. i had this strange baked camembert with honey on bread. and some over-dressed salad. and it was crazy expensive. then we walked around but it started raining so we decided to get going to vendée. we piled into the car, ben gave a couple friends lifts up there and we got to his mom's place around 9. then we had dinner- a soup of mixed veggies and too much black pepper and no salt. with bread of course and clementines for dessert. i'm pretty sure clementines are just mandarins here cuz they look and taste the same. then we went out to visit his friends at night and talked until very late. it's cold and a quite village town so there isn't much else to do.
sunday, woke up late and walked around the town looking at the xmas market which was teeeny. and we went to the mall but i didn't get to look around much, with 3 guys they could only stand shopping for an hour or so. and none of them got any of their gift shopping done. came home and relaxed and talked. i showered finally! and we had a lazy dinner and channel surfed till we were pooped- around 11 haha. then we went to bed.
monday: woke up at 10 after a very good night's sleep and had some brioche and homemade banana berry jam. i don't know what type of berry though. don't know what the plan is for today; the weather is cold and gloomy.
all we hear on the radio these days is the snow in paris and the north and in london. i cant go anywhere without hearing about it! it's pretty crazy! people everywhere are stranded and i am very glad i didn't decide to travel out of the country.
i am learning a lot of french youth slang from ben and his friends and it is all very amusing. i just can't really tell the difference between the very impolite and the crude. which everyone else finds hilarious.
craving: spicy spicy indian chinese food and a hot tub
currently listening to: french talk radio
Saturday, December 4, 2010
i could dream of ways to see you, i could close my eyes to dream
so the fates have declared this to be yet another weekend spent in serignan and bored out of my mind.
tuesday night: i went out to dinner with some teachers to a giant buffet restaurant. it was only slightly awkward. they were all really nice to me. i spent a while before at home, trying to decide whether to go or not because i had googled the restaurant and discovered that it is quite expensive. 23 euro per person. and mariana, the spanish assistant fell sick and wasn't coming. but i went for it since i have so little to do around here. the conversation revolved around teaching but it was mostly over my head. not that i didn't understand, i just had no way of contributing. they also talked about traveling in france and other outings they were organising. the food was amazing. especially dessert. i really have never seen such a large dessert spread in all my life. and it was categorized according to ingredient. the ice cream really blew my mind: caramel beurre sale. yumm. it's caramel ice cream with salty butter. i cannot get enough of it. and ooh what the french can do with chocolate. almost makes me wonder why they bother with frogs' legs, snails and whatever goes into tripe. aziza, my favorite teacher refused to let me pay even though i never said anything all night about the cost or anything. she said it was her treat. god bless her. she keeps saying that she's so grateful to have the chance to pass it along and help an assistant because of the incredible experience she had when she was one in liverpool.
wednesday: i went in for a class i see only twice a month. they're a group of students who take extra english and so they are slightly better than all my others. i spent the 2 hours with annie, their teacher, observing. they spent an hour asking questions about stokholm. at the end of the year they will be taking a 5 day trip to sweden to work on their english. they were quite excited about it and wanted to know all the details immediately. annie forced them to ask any and all questions in english and even though they struggled, (approx. 5 minutes to frame each question) they managed to express themselves really well in english. some of their questions were so strange though and made me wonder if they paid any attention in geography... or life. a few students thought it took all day to fly to sweden. the whole class wanted to know if they used the same electricity outlets as france. and a lot of girls wanted to know if the ABBA albums they wanted to buy would be in english.
the majority of the class was spent whining over the choice of stockholm. everyone wanted to go to london to practice english and couldn't understand why they were headed to a country where english wasn't the national language. i think it is a very cool idea. none of these students speak swedish, and i'm assuming that the odds of meeting swedes who speak french will be low, so the language everyone will be forced to use is english. i think these kids are incredibly lucky and i really wish i could go. i'm not going but not for lack of trying. there is a set number of adults required and i do not count. even though my english is awesome. boo.
thursday was pretty boring. the students were noisy and hilarious and i managed to teach very little. i tried showing a group of 13-14 year olds video clips of the pilot of the tv show lost to discuss what they saw. it worked a little. they earnestly attempted to speak in english and give me words and sentences about what they saw, but they mostly bickered about rubber band bracelets and who was farting and discussed the show in french. it is as if they all have attention disorders. or they're just not into it.
friday was so boring i made myself a chocolate cake. and i iced it too. i'm trying to figure out how to make a moist cake and this recipe called for mayonnaise instead of oil or butter. and i have mayo i'm not using so it was perfect. except that it came out dry as usual. it's very yummy but i want it moist!!
and saturday: i didn't do anything all day. except read, watch tv online, eat, and take a shower. and sing. i seem to do a lot of that these days. i really hope gladys and jean pierre can't hear me. and tomorrow's sunday. i am desperate for some pasta with a roquefort cream sauce and spinach and mushrooms but nothing's open sundays so i have to wait until monday to get the ingredients for that.
craving: lunch at cascade with vee and the twins
currently listening to: the quiet- my typing, random intestinal sounds, and natalya's soft humming
tuesday night: i went out to dinner with some teachers to a giant buffet restaurant. it was only slightly awkward. they were all really nice to me. i spent a while before at home, trying to decide whether to go or not because i had googled the restaurant and discovered that it is quite expensive. 23 euro per person. and mariana, the spanish assistant fell sick and wasn't coming. but i went for it since i have so little to do around here. the conversation revolved around teaching but it was mostly over my head. not that i didn't understand, i just had no way of contributing. they also talked about traveling in france and other outings they were organising. the food was amazing. especially dessert. i really have never seen such a large dessert spread in all my life. and it was categorized according to ingredient. the ice cream really blew my mind: caramel beurre sale. yumm. it's caramel ice cream with salty butter. i cannot get enough of it. and ooh what the french can do with chocolate. almost makes me wonder why they bother with frogs' legs, snails and whatever goes into tripe. aziza, my favorite teacher refused to let me pay even though i never said anything all night about the cost or anything. she said it was her treat. god bless her. she keeps saying that she's so grateful to have the chance to pass it along and help an assistant because of the incredible experience she had when she was one in liverpool.
wednesday: i went in for a class i see only twice a month. they're a group of students who take extra english and so they are slightly better than all my others. i spent the 2 hours with annie, their teacher, observing. they spent an hour asking questions about stokholm. at the end of the year they will be taking a 5 day trip to sweden to work on their english. they were quite excited about it and wanted to know all the details immediately. annie forced them to ask any and all questions in english and even though they struggled, (approx. 5 minutes to frame each question) they managed to express themselves really well in english. some of their questions were so strange though and made me wonder if they paid any attention in geography... or life. a few students thought it took all day to fly to sweden. the whole class wanted to know if they used the same electricity outlets as france. and a lot of girls wanted to know if the ABBA albums they wanted to buy would be in english.
the majority of the class was spent whining over the choice of stockholm. everyone wanted to go to london to practice english and couldn't understand why they were headed to a country where english wasn't the national language. i think it is a very cool idea. none of these students speak swedish, and i'm assuming that the odds of meeting swedes who speak french will be low, so the language everyone will be forced to use is english. i think these kids are incredibly lucky and i really wish i could go. i'm not going but not for lack of trying. there is a set number of adults required and i do not count. even though my english is awesome. boo.
thursday was pretty boring. the students were noisy and hilarious and i managed to teach very little. i tried showing a group of 13-14 year olds video clips of the pilot of the tv show lost to discuss what they saw. it worked a little. they earnestly attempted to speak in english and give me words and sentences about what they saw, but they mostly bickered about rubber band bracelets and who was farting and discussed the show in french. it is as if they all have attention disorders. or they're just not into it.
friday was so boring i made myself a chocolate cake. and i iced it too. i'm trying to figure out how to make a moist cake and this recipe called for mayonnaise instead of oil or butter. and i have mayo i'm not using so it was perfect. except that it came out dry as usual. it's very yummy but i want it moist!!
and saturday: i didn't do anything all day. except read, watch tv online, eat, and take a shower. and sing. i seem to do a lot of that these days. i really hope gladys and jean pierre can't hear me. and tomorrow's sunday. i am desperate for some pasta with a roquefort cream sauce and spinach and mushrooms but nothing's open sundays so i have to wait until monday to get the ingredients for that.
craving: lunch at cascade with vee and the twins
currently listening to: the quiet- my typing, random intestinal sounds, and natalya's soft humming
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
but it just may be a looooonatic you're looking for!
i am sleepy but i have a lot to do and i really want to blog because i have a lot to say but i'm sleepy.
this past weekend: didn't do much. it rained. gladys and jean pierre went to visit grand kids so i blasted music and sang very very loudly which felt great after my sore throat stuff. i had laundry drying in the garage that i wanted to get but couldn't cuz my remote wouldn't work. i tried the button every hour on saturday, stood outside the garage door pointing it at various corners, trying different degrees of pressure on the button. sigh. i tried to go shopping on sunday but the grocery store was closed. it was strange though, because as i stood outside the hyper u in the cold, there was a large sign saying how they are open 7 days a week, 8am to 8pm. i was angry and cold and looked around for someone to share my indignance with, but there wasn't a soul around. so i walked home. the gate wouldn't open. it's controlled by a remote and there is no overriding the remote. my remote is touchy sometimes, so i went for a short walk up and down the street to give it time to come around. didn't work. so i went for an even longer walk. came back and pushed the little button and nothing. and it was cold. so i sat down and thought. i didn't want to call gladys and worry her. so i decided to check out my options.
i found a spot through which if i absolutely had to, i could climb up and jump over a barbed wire fence into gladys' flower garden. then i sat back down on the sidewalk again to wait. i felt pretty self-conscious every time a car went by or an old lady hobbled by (crossing the street deliberately when she saw me) because this is not a place where people sit on the street. people don't even stand on the streets here unless they are talking to someone they just happened to meet or they are waiting for a bus. i called jules because i had to tell someone what was going on and during the call my phone beeped to let me know it would die, soon. not the best circumstances for a sunday night.
when it was too cold to handle, i decided to jump. it was pretty hilarious and took me a while to pull myself up. every time i heard a car drive by i burst out laughing wondering what it must have looked like to see a crazy girl struggling and scrambling through a hedge and over a very pokey fence. the fence hurt a lot. it poked through my favorite jeans. but i was in and i made my way inside to the warmth.
monday night when gladys and jean pierre got home, i told them what happened. he took my remote and with one push, had the fence open, perfectly. and i told them about the garage. and in front of my face, inside my room, he pushed the garage button once, and it opened immediately. of course. so there they were looking at me like i was slightly deranged, but to be pitied. and i was screaming inside.
and that is tonight's story children. stay tuned for the tale of the listening dinner and the anti-stockholm syndrome.
craving: orange juice! and peaches.
currently listening to: take you there- sean kingston
this past weekend: didn't do much. it rained. gladys and jean pierre went to visit grand kids so i blasted music and sang very very loudly which felt great after my sore throat stuff. i had laundry drying in the garage that i wanted to get but couldn't cuz my remote wouldn't work. i tried the button every hour on saturday, stood outside the garage door pointing it at various corners, trying different degrees of pressure on the button. sigh. i tried to go shopping on sunday but the grocery store was closed. it was strange though, because as i stood outside the hyper u in the cold, there was a large sign saying how they are open 7 days a week, 8am to 8pm. i was angry and cold and looked around for someone to share my indignance with, but there wasn't a soul around. so i walked home. the gate wouldn't open. it's controlled by a remote and there is no overriding the remote. my remote is touchy sometimes, so i went for a short walk up and down the street to give it time to come around. didn't work. so i went for an even longer walk. came back and pushed the little button and nothing. and it was cold. so i sat down and thought. i didn't want to call gladys and worry her. so i decided to check out my options.
i found a spot through which if i absolutely had to, i could climb up and jump over a barbed wire fence into gladys' flower garden. then i sat back down on the sidewalk again to wait. i felt pretty self-conscious every time a car went by or an old lady hobbled by (crossing the street deliberately when she saw me) because this is not a place where people sit on the street. people don't even stand on the streets here unless they are talking to someone they just happened to meet or they are waiting for a bus. i called jules because i had to tell someone what was going on and during the call my phone beeped to let me know it would die, soon. not the best circumstances for a sunday night.
when it was too cold to handle, i decided to jump. it was pretty hilarious and took me a while to pull myself up. every time i heard a car drive by i burst out laughing wondering what it must have looked like to see a crazy girl struggling and scrambling through a hedge and over a very pokey fence. the fence hurt a lot. it poked through my favorite jeans. but i was in and i made my way inside to the warmth.
monday night when gladys and jean pierre got home, i told them what happened. he took my remote and with one push, had the fence open, perfectly. and i told them about the garage. and in front of my face, inside my room, he pushed the garage button once, and it opened immediately. of course. so there they were looking at me like i was slightly deranged, but to be pitied. and i was screaming inside.
and that is tonight's story children. stay tuned for the tale of the listening dinner and the anti-stockholm syndrome.
craving: orange juice! and peaches.
currently listening to: take you there- sean kingston
Saturday, November 27, 2010
i couldn't quite perfect that nonchalance; paris and champagne with one brown sugar cube
shout out to ilam and ashu for being amazing, delightful people :)
wednesday: woke up, got ready, caught a train for montpellier. everything went oh so smoothly. i didn't have to wait long for anything, it was as if the world was on my time. met up with jules and headed straight for diagonal, the theater that plays all its films in vo (version originale) which means that harry potter was playing in english!!!! i had missed the 4:15 showing so i bought a ticket for the 9pm one. and i had all day to get very excited about it. jules is not a harry potter fan. to each his own but i am still incredulous whenever i meet a non-fan.
headed back to jules' place and talked and chilled (literally, the weather was ridiculously cold). i texted the few acquaintances i knew in the city to see if anyone happened to be free to watch the movie with me. antoine, a juggling aficionado we met in the park a week ago, agreed to keep me company. there was actually a line outside the theater when we got there! and i hear a lot of people speaking english in various accents but i was too excited to pay attention.
the movie was SO good. and i am so glad they stuck to the book so well. overall it was a very satisfactory viewing experience. i can not wait for the next one to come out. and i already want to watch this one again.
thursday: the next morning, i made sure to make it to my meeting at the ofii early. i waited forever anyway. it was for a medical exam, but i didn't know what that entailed. all it was, was a lung x-ray. the nurse who directed me through the whole thing was nice but in a great hurry. the little booth thing was freezing. and it was a considerably awkward position they wanted me in to snap the photo. it was over quick but that was followed by over an hour of more waiting. all to be called into another room to be told that they forgot to print my card. the lady (who's last name was lion, irrelevant) told me that it could take anywhere from up to 3 days to a week for them to get it processed. and so i had come all the way, paying a total of 17 euro for my return train fare, for essentially nothing other than to push my boobs up to a freezing plate in a tiny booth and carry around proof of my impeccable lungs. i wasn't that upset actually. it was an excuse to watch harry potter!
so i caught a train back and when i was almost at beziers, i got a phone call telling me that my card was ready! great. so i told the lady that i'd be back next week to collect it. but seriously, why?
friday: i woke up and went to the market to buy veggies for the weekend. i came home and made guacamole and garlic butter with parsley to take to a thanksgiving dinner party hosted by elaine in beziers. i caught a bus a little hectically, forgetting my toothbrush, but i made good time. the weather was below 2 degrees outside! i picked up tortilla chips and a loaf of bread for the guac and garlic bread and walked to elaine's to help prep.
she had a turkey going and there was cranberry sauce (oceanside, her mom had sent it to her!) and sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes, and stuffing, and green bean casserole and for dessert... pumpkin pie! people had brought over a lot of food and we were a huge group. all the people from the mexican dinner plus 3 more americans- 2 assistants and a professional volleyball player from san jose. it really is a small world.
dinner took 4 hours to eat and it was so so delicious. elaine and diane had made the pumpkin pie from scratch and it turned out perfect. it has motivated me to try it myself. but the pumpkin in my fridge is for tomorrow's green curry.
it was great talking to all the other assistants and sharing horror stories. i really had a lot to be grateful for, my experience here has been a delight compared to others'. as the night ended, and people trickled out carrying their sleeping or crying children, i felt overwhelmingly content. i really like being in a full, noisy place sometimes. and nothing beats good food and excellent company.
saturday: i spent the night and caught the noon bus back to serignan. i wanted to do a load of laundry but i couldn't get the garage door open. which sucks since gladys and jean pierre have gone to visit grand kids for the weekend and i still have other clothes drying in there.
all i've eaten today is leftovers from last night's dinner. and lots of clementines. i do not have any vitamin c with me, just multi-vitamins. so throwing off this sore throat will have to be done organically haha.
and now i must go wash my hair.
craving: some more of last night's sweet potatoes
currently listening to: paris nights / new york mornings- corinne bailey rae
wednesday: woke up, got ready, caught a train for montpellier. everything went oh so smoothly. i didn't have to wait long for anything, it was as if the world was on my time. met up with jules and headed straight for diagonal, the theater that plays all its films in vo (version originale) which means that harry potter was playing in english!!!! i had missed the 4:15 showing so i bought a ticket for the 9pm one. and i had all day to get very excited about it. jules is not a harry potter fan. to each his own but i am still incredulous whenever i meet a non-fan.
headed back to jules' place and talked and chilled (literally, the weather was ridiculously cold). i texted the few acquaintances i knew in the city to see if anyone happened to be free to watch the movie with me. antoine, a juggling aficionado we met in the park a week ago, agreed to keep me company. there was actually a line outside the theater when we got there! and i hear a lot of people speaking english in various accents but i was too excited to pay attention.
the movie was SO good. and i am so glad they stuck to the book so well. overall it was a very satisfactory viewing experience. i can not wait for the next one to come out. and i already want to watch this one again.
thursday: the next morning, i made sure to make it to my meeting at the ofii early. i waited forever anyway. it was for a medical exam, but i didn't know what that entailed. all it was, was a lung x-ray. the nurse who directed me through the whole thing was nice but in a great hurry. the little booth thing was freezing. and it was a considerably awkward position they wanted me in to snap the photo. it was over quick but that was followed by over an hour of more waiting. all to be called into another room to be told that they forgot to print my card. the lady (who's last name was lion, irrelevant) told me that it could take anywhere from up to 3 days to a week for them to get it processed. and so i had come all the way, paying a total of 17 euro for my return train fare, for essentially nothing other than to push my boobs up to a freezing plate in a tiny booth and carry around proof of my impeccable lungs. i wasn't that upset actually. it was an excuse to watch harry potter!
so i caught a train back and when i was almost at beziers, i got a phone call telling me that my card was ready! great. so i told the lady that i'd be back next week to collect it. but seriously, why?
friday: i woke up and went to the market to buy veggies for the weekend. i came home and made guacamole and garlic butter with parsley to take to a thanksgiving dinner party hosted by elaine in beziers. i caught a bus a little hectically, forgetting my toothbrush, but i made good time. the weather was below 2 degrees outside! i picked up tortilla chips and a loaf of bread for the guac and garlic bread and walked to elaine's to help prep.
she had a turkey going and there was cranberry sauce (oceanside, her mom had sent it to her!) and sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes, and stuffing, and green bean casserole and for dessert... pumpkin pie! people had brought over a lot of food and we were a huge group. all the people from the mexican dinner plus 3 more americans- 2 assistants and a professional volleyball player from san jose. it really is a small world.
dinner took 4 hours to eat and it was so so delicious. elaine and diane had made the pumpkin pie from scratch and it turned out perfect. it has motivated me to try it myself. but the pumpkin in my fridge is for tomorrow's green curry.
it was great talking to all the other assistants and sharing horror stories. i really had a lot to be grateful for, my experience here has been a delight compared to others'. as the night ended, and people trickled out carrying their sleeping or crying children, i felt overwhelmingly content. i really like being in a full, noisy place sometimes. and nothing beats good food and excellent company.
saturday: i spent the night and caught the noon bus back to serignan. i wanted to do a load of laundry but i couldn't get the garage door open. which sucks since gladys and jean pierre have gone to visit grand kids for the weekend and i still have other clothes drying in there.
all i've eaten today is leftovers from last night's dinner. and lots of clementines. i do not have any vitamin c with me, just multi-vitamins. so throwing off this sore throat will have to be done organically haha.
and now i must go wash my hair.
craving: some more of last night's sweet potatoes
currently listening to: paris nights / new york mornings- corinne bailey rae
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.
i failed to mention this in the last post: thank you so much to everyone who commented! it really made my week :)
tuesdays are good days to blog because so much happens in school. today was no exception. i only had one hour in the morning; a group of eleven 11 year olds and they were working on family. they were energetic and surprised when they answered me correctly, which was adorable. they would also look at me like i was a mad woman when i asked them to try and answer in english. it was so simple too: describe your family. and the vocab was all on the board. i started off by drawing the simpsons family tree on the board and labeled each person what they were. ie. bart= son and brother. i think i speak too quickly even though i think it's quite slow enough, because half way through the class, a boy asked me if 'father' was what homer was called in english. i think i enjoy teaching the younger students more here, they behave so much better.
i got to head home after that class for a long nap and lunch before my 3 afternoon classes. the first group was the other half of a horror group from last week. i think their teacher must have considerably chastised them all because this group was eerily silent. they loosened up midway and participated and were very well-behaved.
i had prepared youtube videos for all my afternoon classes but when i hit full screen, i got an 'unexpected error' and so i talked them through a restaurant situation (for what felt like the 40th time for me), since they hadn't done it before. and when they class was over i power walked home to re-stream the videos and legged it back to school within the hour. i'm sure the ladies at the front office thought i was insane, coming and going like i was. the total times i walked to and from school today is: 3.
my afternoon classes were trying to say the least. i would have preferred to have had one of them yell in my face all hour instead of having to deal with them all. the last group especially. they would not stay quiet even 2 minutes to watch the video. i waited and they would hush but there was never silence, and the little quiet there was never lasted longer than ten seconds at a time. i didn't yell. i picked up the list of their names and just kept reading names off and telling each person in turn to be quiet. it was all i could do i thought because they each seemed to only take notice when i said their names. i also wrote stuff by their names in hopes that they would be threatened enough to shut up. to no avail. they became even louder, demanding to know what i was writing and giving me fake names.
the odd thing was that even the chattiest person was able to answer my questions about the video. i had to ask them a thousand times and repeat myself countlessly (not a word, but don't you think it should be one?) over the voices of those who refused to stop talking. but they had all somehow managed to pay attention in between fighting each other over rubber bracelets, tipping chairs over, pulling pants down, changing seats, and pinching, flicking and smacking each other on the head, all while whining at me to get the others to stop. not everyone, but most. this time there were only 3 students who stayed quiet throughout. it's odd because i think they all learned something. i just wonder why they didn't bother to stay quiet to learn more. were we like that in middle school? i remember wanting to learn french...
monday: i made an amazing mushroom sabzi with pav bhaji masala, courtesy el madre. it was sooooo good. it was today's lunch and will be dinner.
friday and this weekend was spent trying to get rid of a frightening sore throat. google told me to gargle some very odd things but i stuck to salt and warm water. i also made 13 delicious chocolate chip cookies. only one now remains in the jar, and it is staring at me as i type.
i have noticed that so far, serignan and toronto have roughly the same outside temperatures when it is not raining. and it barely rains here. this is not fair. i picked the south of france to escape the freezing cold. it seems, as whoopi told me, that i "inspire bad weather."
today i received my appointment date for the immigration stuff. it's thursday. so i will be heading to montpellier tomorrow and back thursday or friday. i was so angry that they gave me barely any time to plan this (and throw off my sore throat) when i realized that the 7th harry potter movie releases in france tomorrow. and montpellier is possibly the only place close to me that might actually play it in english. coincidence? or does the universe love me? i'll keep you posted. (oh cross your fingers, toes and eyes and send me positive health vibes and just hope for me that there is a theater that will play it in english with the real actors' voices! please oh please!)
craving: ripe mangoes
currently listening to: crystalized- the xx
tuesdays are good days to blog because so much happens in school. today was no exception. i only had one hour in the morning; a group of eleven 11 year olds and they were working on family. they were energetic and surprised when they answered me correctly, which was adorable. they would also look at me like i was a mad woman when i asked them to try and answer in english. it was so simple too: describe your family. and the vocab was all on the board. i started off by drawing the simpsons family tree on the board and labeled each person what they were. ie. bart= son and brother. i think i speak too quickly even though i think it's quite slow enough, because half way through the class, a boy asked me if 'father' was what homer was called in english. i think i enjoy teaching the younger students more here, they behave so much better.
i got to head home after that class for a long nap and lunch before my 3 afternoon classes. the first group was the other half of a horror group from last week. i think their teacher must have considerably chastised them all because this group was eerily silent. they loosened up midway and participated and were very well-behaved.
i had prepared youtube videos for all my afternoon classes but when i hit full screen, i got an 'unexpected error' and so i talked them through a restaurant situation (for what felt like the 40th time for me), since they hadn't done it before. and when they class was over i power walked home to re-stream the videos and legged it back to school within the hour. i'm sure the ladies at the front office thought i was insane, coming and going like i was. the total times i walked to and from school today is: 3.
my afternoon classes were trying to say the least. i would have preferred to have had one of them yell in my face all hour instead of having to deal with them all. the last group especially. they would not stay quiet even 2 minutes to watch the video. i waited and they would hush but there was never silence, and the little quiet there was never lasted longer than ten seconds at a time. i didn't yell. i picked up the list of their names and just kept reading names off and telling each person in turn to be quiet. it was all i could do i thought because they each seemed to only take notice when i said their names. i also wrote stuff by their names in hopes that they would be threatened enough to shut up. to no avail. they became even louder, demanding to know what i was writing and giving me fake names.
the odd thing was that even the chattiest person was able to answer my questions about the video. i had to ask them a thousand times and repeat myself countlessly (not a word, but don't you think it should be one?) over the voices of those who refused to stop talking. but they had all somehow managed to pay attention in between fighting each other over rubber bracelets, tipping chairs over, pulling pants down, changing seats, and pinching, flicking and smacking each other on the head, all while whining at me to get the others to stop. not everyone, but most. this time there were only 3 students who stayed quiet throughout. it's odd because i think they all learned something. i just wonder why they didn't bother to stay quiet to learn more. were we like that in middle school? i remember wanting to learn french...
monday: i made an amazing mushroom sabzi with pav bhaji masala, courtesy el madre. it was sooooo good. it was today's lunch and will be dinner.
friday and this weekend was spent trying to get rid of a frightening sore throat. google told me to gargle some very odd things but i stuck to salt and warm water. i also made 13 delicious chocolate chip cookies. only one now remains in the jar, and it is staring at me as i type.
i have noticed that so far, serignan and toronto have roughly the same outside temperatures when it is not raining. and it barely rains here. this is not fair. i picked the south of france to escape the freezing cold. it seems, as whoopi told me, that i "inspire bad weather."
today i received my appointment date for the immigration stuff. it's thursday. so i will be heading to montpellier tomorrow and back thursday or friday. i was so angry that they gave me barely any time to plan this (and throw off my sore throat) when i realized that the 7th harry potter movie releases in france tomorrow. and montpellier is possibly the only place close to me that might actually play it in english. coincidence? or does the universe love me? i'll keep you posted. (oh cross your fingers, toes and eyes and send me positive health vibes and just hope for me that there is a theater that will play it in english with the real actors' voices! please oh please!)
craving: ripe mangoes
currently listening to: crystalized- the xx
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