hey, teacher, leave those kids alone.

huzzah!

so vee's here. and she has been for 3 days. and we've not done much yet but the plans are in motion. sort of.

today i am throwing a lunch for all us assistants as a final goodbye thing. and it's here in my place. i had planned it to be an outdoor lunch in the sun and then we would have headed to the beach to lounge and maybe even swim.

but it's raining today.

so vee and i have cooked and cleared and we'll do it indoors.

the menu is biryani (that resembles sambar satham but it doesn't taste like sambar satham), raita and a guac-salad thing. the food's all pretty much ready. i'm going to add the avocado last minute so that it doesn't turn brown (vee's idea, she's convinced it will even though i've only seen it happen with guac that's a day old at least.)

vee's in charge of the raita and she isn't adding the yogurt until the very last minute cuz she doesn't like there to be too much absorbing. i would like it to be clear that i like absorbing, i like it a lot.

and i stopped with the above sentence because people arrived on time, something i wasn't expecting. and so now, i continue...

it was a lot of fun, there were 12 of us in total and more than enough food to go around. we played charades and ate and ate and ate. everyone loved the biryani. and the raita and the guac. there were delectable mini coconut cupcakes with pink cream cheese frosting and passion fruit frosting made by jules. beccs brought a box of wine cuz we're classy like that, there was pink schwepps, iced tea and my mint lemonade. colleen made an awesome chick pea salad that was spicy and really complemented the dishes we made. there were cookies and carrot sticks and bread (of course). and we ate and ate some more.

then people trickled out and vee and i got down to cleaning up.

and these are short, nondescript sentences cuz i'm sleepy. and my hands are dry from all the dish washing.

craving: a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice
currently listening to: hummm of the computer, my typing and vee's loud sleep-breathing

woaaaaaaah, everyone was wearing fingerless gloves!

my lower right eyelid is twitching.

i have officially begun to get darker. the weather is fabulous. like summer. the sun sets at 8:30. like summer. and i am rarely hungry. like summer. and i'm lazy and sleepy from the heat. like summer.

went to sete on saturday for one of the american assistant's birday thing. it was a hot hot day. and i did a very stupid thing in the morning. i was supposed to get to the train station by 11:20 to catch the train everyone else was catching. and i mixed up the bus schedule and waited over 30 minutes for a bus that wasn't coming. then i went home and had some leftover pasta salad cuz i was angry and hungry and then went out to catch the real bus. sete was fun fun fun fun. we went to lunch and i had a salade aux noix et roquefort a walnut and roquefort salad that had waay too much vinegar on it. everyone else had seafood of course, things with eyes and without eyes, slimy things and shelled things. i always think that if i ate shellfish, i would have to eat a lot cuz after all that work, it looks like a very small bite.

then we went to the beach and laid out in the sun for a looong time. the girls went into the water but i didn't have a swimsuit so i couldn't. plus it was freeeezing. i read some more of austen's persuasion. a book that's taking an annoyingly long time for me to finish. then we headed back to beziers and had pasta carbonera at colleen's place, she made a separate non bacon version for me and the other non-pig-eaters. and we had an interesting rum punch to go with it.

and today i did a lot of laundry and lounged around. i went for a really late run, at 7:30 and it was lovely. then i did my yoga, made and ate another creative salad (today's recipe courtesy of sid): roasted with thyme and olive oil- potatoes, onions, sugar snap peas, and beets. raw tomatoes and roasted red pepper. all mixed with some salt, pepper and parsley. simple but good flavors. i had dessert first- fresh cantaloupe from the market and a grapefruit. eaten separately of course. i seem to crave citrus after a workout so every day, after my run, i eat a grapefruit. and i also ate the last bit of chocolate in my house- a raspberry filled ghiradelli dark chocolate square that my mommy sent a long time ago.

and now i'm sleeepy cuz i had a hot shower.

craving: a jamba juice for breakfast tomorrow
currently listening to: boombox- the lonely island featuring julian casablancas

i got this, you got this, my friend is on my right, aaaay

i'm being lazy and not working out today. which is vair bad and i feel guilty. but it's late. and i had a snack which messed up my groove. enough with the excuses...

the kids were all crazy today. every single one of the 5 classes i had. my 9am class we just plain noisy and i had to tell them to be quiet constantly. i had a lot of energy in the morning (i blame 2, yes 2 chocolate croissants) but they managed to wear me out. and we were working on time and when i drew a clock with 6:35 on it, they wrote "seven to six" and when i told them it was wrong, switched it to "six to seven." and it took me a while to explain the mistake at which several of them smacked their palms to their foreheads and i was glad that they understood the silliness of their mistake. it got better after that but still crazy noisy.

then i came home for lunch and skyped with vee for a nice long time in the sun. i had lunch outside too and skyped and ate and soaked up the sun with the lizards. i had a salad: chick peas, onion, green pepper, tomato, avocado seasoned with salt, pepper, coriander, and olive oil. and i also made some mint lemonade (lime mint cooler) by blending some mint into lemonade and adding a touch of salt for some madras style! i also had a nonfat cherry yogurt which is my least favorite kind of yogurt. i pretty much don't like cherry flavored anything.

headed back to school and my next group of 11 year olds were crazy hyper. they had to learn numbers, time and daily activities for a test the next day but i barely managed to discuss time. thankfully these guys were better at it than the earlier group but there were individuals who would get up to the board to answer a question and then just stand there and say "je ne sais pas, je ne trouve pas" and leave it at that. which i didn't understand. what's the harm in writing something down? if it's wrong i help you correct it and you learn from the mistake. i was trying to be kind and encouraging to the kid at the board while telling the rest of the class to please shut up so i could hear myself think. but they weren't interested in that. there was too much jacket stealing and shoving going on for them to be bothered about how to say 7:45 in the 'traditional sense.' (fifteen minutes to seven)

for my next 2 classes, i thought i had planned an awesome activity: i was going to show them the friday video and tell them the story behind the video and i was sure they would want to discuss. these were the 13 year olds, supposedly the best english class in the school. they had just been to amsterdam on a trip where they had to speak in english so i thought at least they would now see the importance of learning the language. but no. the first group loudly voiced their dislike for the song, in french. they told me that rebecca black has no talent and shouldn't pursue a career in music. but when i asked them the difference between her and justin beiber, all hell broke loose. the girls started arguing with the boys and they was a lot of yelling in french.

the second group was better. they participated more and told me that maybe if the song's lyrics were better she wouldn't have been so hated. or if her voice wasn't so nasal. when i played the song for the first time some of them even nodded their heads along to the beat or joined in at the "fun, fun, fun, fun" and "friday, friday..." bits. they also told me that they would never make a video like that just to become famous, or known. so different from american kids haha. i had such a difficult time getting them to voice their opinions in english though, it was strange. they didn't seem to bother trying, they talked to each other about the song but nobody wanted to try and give me a few sentences in english. so most of the class was spent with me asking them yes or no questions in english and them replying only yes or no and then adding more in french. the second group also thought it would be hilarious to throw tiny bits of eraser at one another and they did so and laughed like loons. sigh.

so then i came home pooped. and peckish. so i snacked and i shouldn't have. i had a whole bunch of strawberries that the sweet man at the market gave me for free cuz i teach his twin girls every other week. and i had some yummy grainy bread with fig jam and bits of comte on top. and more strawberries. and i was still peckish so i grabbed a reeses peanut butter cup. and i don't even like them. i took a bite and immediately regretted it but to not waste it, i but it in the blender, added a bit of milk and made an odd milkshake. it tasted ok, like peanut butter milk. better than the chocolate at any rate. and so all this snacking led to me skyping with vee and it becoming too late to run.

so here i sit at 8:36pm no running, no yoga, too much food, and thoroughly annoyed with rebecca black since i had to play her song 4 times in school.

craving: more daylight so i can go work out and justify the reeses.
currently listening to: 7 guesses which song is stuck in my head.

you aint gotta downgrade, you can get what i get!

i made daal today! and i made it with split peas! same thing really, consistency-wise. yeah, i'm uber creative like that.

and i ate waaay too much food: i will now list for your reading pleasure:
no breakfast cuz i wanted to sleep in
daal with carrots and onions and rice
small raspberry tart
2 small pieces of lemon cake with dollops of creme fraiche
some more daal with rice
3 slices of walnut bread with comte cheese
1 more slice of walnut bread with daal

no dinner for me je me suppose!

today the kids were really bratty and that's my justification for eating a lot. plus the daal is really yummy. it makes me really wish i had kept a diary when i was in middle school so i can go back now and read it and remember what it was like to be that age and try and learn a language. i'm pretty sure i wouldn't sass the french assistant if we had one. i remember being a good child. i think it has to do with the levels of discipline declining severely in today's (western) youth. if parents instilled more fear into their kids to do better in school or else, they'd pay attention. fear is a good motivator and i think it should be used cuz at 12, your child is not going to fully understand how handy english will be one day. no matter how much explaining you do.

i've been thinking about parenting a lot and i remember a calvin and hobbes strip where calvin was in shock at how there was no test for his dad to become 'dad.' it's a bizarre idea but maybe it's one that should be looked into. there are too many miserable people in the world so why create more if they're just gonna end up disillusioned, disheartened, stupid and unmotivated?

i keeed. a little. where this is coming from: i recently learned that most of the kids in this area who go to the school i teach at come from broken homes with very low incomes. the parents of these kids were underachievers themselves and now they work in agriculture seasonally and drink the other half of the year. they smoke and cuss and generally give their kids crap all the time. they also show up at school every now and then and give the teachers crap too. and this i don't understand. if my life sucked and i had a child, i would do everything in my power to make sure my child's life wouldn't suck. and that includes scaring the bejeebus out of it, if that's what it took to get it to study hard and get good grades! i'm fairly sure this isn't a radical thought, i just wonder why the parents out here let their kids be like them. surely that can't make them proud parents to see little versions of themselves.

or is it that? it could be that the parents don't think they have it all that bad, or may even think that they got it good. and so they don't see the point of working any harder for anything more when they're content with their lot. and this is the idea they pass on to their little elodie or bastien that it's ok to just get by cuz french social security is great!

i wonder if i'm being too harsh or even unrealistic about it all. at any rate, these are just some thoughts i thought i'd pen (type) down before i did the dishes and took a shower.

craving: a back cracking massage
currently listening to: whatever you like- t.i.

Pretty eyes, long hair, smells so sweet like summer in the air

i don't have much to report, the past week has been fairly uneventful. weather has been getting nicer so i've been going on walks and bike rides. i also started running and as a result i hurt everywhere. but that's good and i missed working out so much i'm glad i can run a little now.

yesterday i went to the market and got veggies for a salad. the plan is to eat as healthy as possible from now all through my summer. and since the weather's been nice, i don't mind not eating a hot meal. i made a pretty kick ass salad too: one tomato, half of a green and a red pepper, half an onion, i roasted an aubergine with olive oil and garlic and did the same to a zucchini and added chick peas and 2 small cooked and peeled beets. dressed it all with olive oil, salt, pepper, coriander and 2 spoons of wine vinegar. yummmm. and gladys was worried that i didn't have anything hot and so she brought me some soup she made with zucchini, and i love her soups. she put oatmeal in this one which was a yummy texture that i had never thought of before!

i've been doing an hour of yoga everyday for the past few weeks and i love it. but i don't really like the cool down and calm your body and center thing at the end. so i stretch and stop. i don't know if it's necessary to the whole yoga experience or not but i'm always cold and sleepy after it so i stopped doing it. i also have a tough time with the breathing cuz in the videos i follow the time between breaths and poses is too long so i take an extra breath each time and i hope that's ok. and something weird i've noticed is that during standing balance poses, i have no problem balancing on my right leg but can't seem to hold still on my left. it's quite frustrating.

yesterday i checked in with my teachers about what to prepare for today's classes and i got texts and emails one by one canceling all my classes. so where i would have worked 7 hours today, i'm only working 1. this doesn't bother me too much. but i really like working and hanging out with the kids and trying to teach them english and getting them to speak it and not be scared. i only have one teacher who has never canceled his classes on me and because of that i know all the students by name and i can see that they've gotten better! if only this were the case with all my classes. especially the groups who have a more advanced level of english. and now there is only one month left.

craving: a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a bowl of fresh blueberries
currently listening to: always remember be- ryan cuming

and i'm here to remind you of the mess you left when you went away!

i am so angry. i'm typing this at school and i had a nice little post almost finished when i accidentally hit ctrl and 'w' and apparently in france that means 'close the window without double checking or anything.' that is the second post i have lost since i started this blog!

i hate even trying to retype this stuff; it's like accidentally deleting an essay or paragraphs. i have 0 motivation to do it all over again.

i suppose from now on i'm gonna hit 'save now' vigilantly every 5 minutes to make sure that nothing just vanishes.

sigh. here's a less entertaining post:

gladys decided yesterday that since the days are now sunny and that means that warmth will soon be here, to turn off the heating. so i was very very cold in my little room. i took a boiling hot shower and put on more clothes than i should really ever need when i'm at home at that made it better. apparently people who are cold all the time can be diagnosed as such. i haven't researched this but i have a friend who is always cold too and he told me that his regular body temperature is lower than other people's. when i was up in nantes and i thought i had a fever, ange took my temperatrue and said i was a degree lower than usual so it was impossible that i could have a fever! guess i am a reptile after all.

craving: a toasted bagel with cream cheese

currently listening to: the staff room and announcements and noise since the bell just rang.

trussst in me, jussst in me; close your eyes, and trusst in me.

alors not much happened today but i just took a shower and i'm no longer sleepy and blogging usually makes me sleepy. so here i am.

thursday: i had 2 classes and they were both easy and sweet. my eleven year olds were learning to tell time and they were really good at it so i added daily activities: 'what time do you wake up?' and the like. they're like little excited sponges and they learn so quick i love teaching them. i just wonder if they retain the stuff after they run out of class. and i don't really have any way of knowing cuz i never repeat the same material. my second class were 13 year olds and they were less intelligent, as usual. half of them leave for amsterdam next week to practice english. all of the advanced english classes are going along with my favorite english teachers. but i'm not. and i'm kinda bummed about that. they're in for a 20 hour bus ride though so that makes it a little better. the spanish assistant gets to go on that trip to barcelona, but i don't get to go with the english kids. sigh.

these students were learning about describing holidays and so i had them write emails about visiting a specific monument or touristy spot in new york. one of them stood out far beyond the rest. she came up with 10 sentences in under 10 minutes and with barely any mistakes. so i made her write another 10. i told them all to make stuff up if they didn't know what to say and this prodigal child wrote about visiting the statue of liberty, going all the way to the top, jumping into the ocean and swimming with fish and whales and then going home to take a shower. and she ended it with "it was so funny!"

then i came home and it has been read, eat, be online, repeat. i'm reading austen's persuasion and so far it's pretty slow.

wednesday: no work. went to the market in the yucky rain and on the way saw that there was a level 4 flood warning. i didn't notice any water in the streets or anything and the rain was really only spitting, but it had been for the past 3 days straight. i talked to gladys later and she asked if i'd like to come on a walk with her and jean pierre to see the river. so i agreed and my goodness; it was a good 5 meters higher than usual. and flowing ridiculously fast. brown murky water. all the ducks had gotten out of the water and found higher ground. and the river was carrying all kinds of junk and a lot of sticks and wood and tree bits. we then went to valras to the beach and it was incredible. the beach was covered with debris from the river and there was sand everywhere. fortunately the rain stopped and the sea was calm so the river just ran right into it. this made the water level and the flood warning level go down.

i made a yummy roasted red pepper vermicelli risotto with carrots. but now i'm getting tired of what i know to cook. i need to start looking for new easy yummy recipes. any recommendations of good veggie food blogs would be appreciated.

i had a grapefruit today! but far too many dove dark chocolate with almond square thingies. why oh why did you send them to me mommy?

craving: zachary's pizza
currently listening to: nothing and the sound of me typing.