"Par contre aux Etats-Unis..."

(Though it is much larger than mine, here's a good example of a typical French elementary school.)

I find myself saying this a lot: "But back in the United States..."

Basically, it's setting me up for a comparison between France and the United States. I swear that's all my roommate and I talk about, is what it's like here compared to the good ol' U.S. of A.

Whatever. If you're born a certain way, you're always going to be seeing through that tint of glasses, right?

And I'm super surprised I haven't brought this one up yet, but that's probably because I see it every day at school. But every morning, rain, hail, thick fog, or shine -- though we haven't been seeing much of that lately, it seems I did, in fact, jinx the nice weather this weekend -- all the students are left to run a muck outside in la cour (the playground, though it's nothing but a concrete square blocked off from the outside world by the fence and gate that circle the entire school).

When the morning, recess, and afternoon bells ring, the students have two minutes to line up according to class, two-by-two. Once this is done, the teachers -- usually laughing amongst themselves in the center of the cour -- break off and go to their respective lines. From there, they take turns going up the stairs to their classes. It's all very systematic, like a ballet really.

One teacher enters, the others encourage their lines of children to follow and instinctively take sequential pauses. You have to wait 30 seconds at the door to enter the interior. Thirty seconds at the bottom of the stairs to climb them. Once you reach the summit -- you guessed it -- a 30 second pause atop the stairs. Then the double doors leading to the classrooms requires another 30 second stop, while you wait at your teacher's door for him/her to say the magic words, "Entrez les enfants." Only then is it safe to enter the classroom. If I didn't know better, I would have guessed this country has an impeccable military power, based on the obedience and compliance alone that is visible in the elementary school system.

All that explaining and picture-painting was necessary to say this one thing: WHY DO THE TEACHERS LEAVE THEIR KIDS OUT IN THE RAIN SO LONG?!?!

This morning, it rained again. And during all the 30-second pausing, a bunch of class lines inevitably are going to have to wait outside. I understand that it'd be pandemonium if everyone was to run inside all at once, but why can't the classes begin like ours did back in California: Students entered the classroom at their leisure, as long as everyone was seated and ready to go by the time the first bell rang, when teachers would call roll. And if it was raining, we'd certainly have indoor recess; we weren't left to fend for ourselves against all the elements. Especially since the majority of parents obviously don't equip their children with raincoats or umbrellas! Fashion wins over practicality nine times out of 10 in this nation, so every student is perfectly dressed in their long peacoats, jeans tucked into their boots and perfectly coiffed hair.

Oh yeah, did I mention they're only NINE YEARS OLD?!

And let's not forget the scatter-brained teacher. Everybody had one at some point in their life. I remember a good handful from just elementary and middle school alone -- don't get me started on college.

But said teacher was nearly five minutes late after the first bell rang this morning! So guess what that means: her perfectly-lined up students stayed in their line, necks craning towards the front door, waiting patiently for their maitress to show. If only they were this orderly and quiet in class... However, that doesn't excuse the fact that they were just left standing in the rain and not one single teacher/administrator pretended to even half care! Am I missing something here?

Well, just like all things here, I've decided just not to care really. I know that sounds selfish and totally wrong, but I find that my lessons are better when I've hardened to my environment. Instead of worrying about minor details and being everyone's friend, I'm just here to do one thing and one thing only: teach. For example today my classes erupted in noise and general outburst all afternoon long when I decided to put my foot down. I let them finish and then ripped through my exercises and lesson with some success, I think. Well, at least half the class understood what was going on and did really well, so we'll see how Day 2 of my "emotions" lesson goes on Tuesday.

There you have it, I only have 53 days of teaching left to look forward to in France.

And yes, I actually did count out how many teaching days I have left in this country. The other 50 will be extremely blissful, since they are not filled with school. Oh yeah, and two weeks of that time won't even be spent in this country at all since I'll be spring breaking throughout Europe :)

New Shows, Pronto!

Hearing that the writers' strikes are finally over, I immediately went to ABC.com to see when the next new Grey's Anatomy will air, so that way I could go download it somewhere online.

However, they're still running old episodes for quite a while. I think I'll stick to my original plan when I found out that the bastards at ABC.com don't let you watch episodes online if you're not in the United States, and just end up putting this season on my parents' Netflix account when/if I move back home to California this summer.

Oh well.

Though, I did find a neat little way to pass 10 minutes on the website: The Grey's Anatomy personality test. Don't judge.

Also, my Valentine's Day project is going quite smoothly in all my classes. Who knew arts and crafts -- such as designing pink and red hand-made heart cards -- in English takes up the entire class period?

Good thing there are TWO MORE holidays in March before we take our two weeks' vacation in April for SPRING BREAK '08. Germany and Spain, I'm ready for you!!

Taper sur bois

Is that how the French translate knock on wood? Either way, I'm doing it!

After a lovely winter excursion up to the Alps and my dad's house -- this morning we took a walk around Lac d'Annecy and went to the Sunday farmer's market in Annecy le Vieux -- a quick afternoon flight brings me back to Antibes and what I think will be the start of a beautiful French spring!

Lac d'Annecy under its morning winter fog. Today was my third time around it!

Although it's not quite spring yet, I have every indication to believe it is in the South of France. I was only wearing a tee-shirt with a tanktop underneath, but already the double layer was too much for me in the 60+ degree weather! My roommate says the rain is behind us now and since she's been living here for seven years, I'll take her word for it.

So knock on wood that I don't jinx this beautiful weather!

Flying down here, I opted to go for a window seat -- which I never do. Since I'm used to taking super long flights, I prefer the aisle seats because I have a bit more room to spread out, and I don't have to bug people sleeping in their seats next to me if I need to go to the lavatory or stretch my legs around the cabin.

The decision quickly paid off as I saw all of Geneva under a cloudless, 55-degree sky. The last two times I've flown in/out of Geneva, it was muddled in dark clouds and fog. Another advantage was seeing the Alps all the way down to Nice including Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in France!

Once we reached the Baie des Anges down here, we spent nearly half of our 45-minute flight circling the ocean, waiting for our cue to land. During the unnecessarily long circle, I actually was able to locate my apartment BUILDING in Antibes, I saw Monte-Carlo, the costal Lérins Islands where the Man in the Iron Mask was said to be jailed, and even part of the long peninsula that is the Italian Riviera which extended long beyond my line of sight.

As much as I'm not ready to go back to class tomorrow, this weather is enough to motivate me to get out and enjoy my second half of the program in France! Plus, it's only one month until my next break and there are a lot of holidays between February and April, meaning I don't have to plan too hard to give a fun cultural lesson ;-)

What I did today....

I went skiing in a pretty big resort in Clusaz with my dad and his co-workers today! It's about 45 minutes from his apartment in Annecy. (And this video is where I, unsuccessfully, tried to spray my dad with powder. Except that I was too concerned with falling on my face and having one ski end up over my head, since this was the first red run of the day.)

It's been about six years since the last time I went skiing falling with Laura in Tahoe. This time definitely didn't turn out like that, probably because I backed off the red and black trails until my very last run of the day.

Lunch was amazing. I had white wine, salad, salmon and a baked potato on a redwood plank instead of a plate. I guess it's a little better than the cafeteria hotdogs, chowder and hamburgers/fries they serve in American lodges. I'm really sad we didn't get any pictures to do this justice, but in France skiing is really unlike what we're used to in the U.S. For example, I noticed on the first time up the lift that there were about six or seven restaurants along the way. And that was only a small, green slope! Imagine how many more must have been up higher. Not to mention the fact that every single one was packed! There were probably more people sitting down eating than there were on the hill.

Not only that, but people take their habitual two-hour lunch, and if you're too into the good life to get back to carving through a snow-covered mountain, why they have "chaises longues" for you to lounge out on the balconies and soak up some sun.

And can we say "Lawsuit waiting to happen"? The second-most common way to get up the mountain is by the "tire-fesses," which is probably my favorite French word, ever. It literally means "butt pull." The device is basically a long rod with a circular seat at the end that you put between your legs. In the up-right standing position, you literally are pulled from the butt-region up the hill.

Ridiculous!

As soon as I can stop being so nervous about falling, I would definitely like to do this again here.

Oh yeah, I also completed my first Sudoku puzzle entirely in pen. Big first in my life since I've been doing them in pencil for the past three years.

Thoughts on pond-hopping

In case you were wondering, I have indeed made it back safely to Europe. Let's just say that air travel to France in 2008 turned out MUCH better than it did when I first made the long trek out here back in September of last year.

On the way to California I took Delta, while the carrier back to my dad in Annecy was Air France. The first thing you notice when flying AF is that every single flight attendant is a native French speaker, usually, with pretty terrible English. I found myself listening mostly to the French announcements and translating for my neighbors in the window section.

When I was on Delta, we were served lunch 30 minutes after boarding. I overheard on the PA system the two lunch choices, along with the announcement that red/white wine would be served with the meal, compliments of the sky team. Figures when I ordered my very own glass of rouge, the large, American flight attendant carded me. Lady, we're only 30 minutes off the ground from France, STILL IN INTERNATIONAL AIR.

Well, my point here is that flying with a French team dramatically changed that experience. First of all, the flight attendant began speaking to me in French, assuming I was French, while all my neighbors ordered their meals and were asked questions in English. I'd like to think that because I was giving simple, quick answers -- I'm quite efficient when it comes to food and beverage choices -- I think she actually mistook me for a Francophone. Perhaps I should thank the nature of the short replies for not allowing my American accent to betray me. Either way, another group responded to her in heavily accented, slow) French, but she refused to answer in that language, dropping down to their English level.

When we landed in Charles de Gaulle, I wanted to show off my newly-acquired carte de sejour and prove my legal residency in the country. Seeing as how I was practically the only American coming off that flight, the "non-European Union" passport line was extremely short. So when it came my turn to present my papers, the two men working in the both had plenty of time to talk to me without worrying about clogging up the line. But this is France, even if they held back the line, I doubt it'd ever weigh on their consciences.

After looking at my work card -- which clearly states I'm here to work -- the man sitting in the front of the booth asked if I was here as a student.

"No, I'm a visiting teacher," I replied.

"Ahh, what language?" the man quietly standing in the back asked me.

"English," I said, motioning toward my AMERICAN passport.

And then Man No. 2 in the back starts smiling wildly, responding rather sheepishly, "I've always wanted to learn English."

That's when Man No. 1 sitting in the front decided to play wingman and told me I needed to leave me phone number and e-mail so I could have private lessons with his co-worker.

But the creepiest part was when he winked at me, reassuring, "I'm sure he'd pay you well."

What am I, some kind of language whore?! Well, I guess I could have had a worse experience/encounter at the passport control desk, so no further complaints from me...

Already?!

The lack of any recent posts has been due to me living my life up over the course of the past 10 days. And for that I make no apologies.

Being home was amazing, but everything felt so rushed and crammed into an insufficient amount of time. Hmm, kind of like how I felt as soon as I had my visa, blinked, and then was suddenly in France back in late September.

Now here I stand, ready to go back tomorrow. Maybe that's why I'm still up past midnight; could I subconsciously be trying to cherish every last second in the United States?

However, I do have a lot to look forward to when I get back. As much as this whole teaching thing is weighing down on me, there are still lots of cultural goodies in my favor.

March brings two visitors from the 13-16th and then the 21st-31st. And as soon as I get back, March is not even one week away! Oh yeah, since I'm flying into Geneva tomorrow (technically Thursday, but who's counting?) I'll be with my dad for the rest of the week before getting back to work on Monday. I think for the first time in my life, we're going to be skiing in the Alps! That should be amazing -- regardless of how I fare on the slopes.

While April is not only my 23rd birthday -- wow, when did we all get so old?! -- it also brings the last school vacation of the academic year: SPRING BREAK. For half of the month of April, I will be soaking up the European sun, food and most likely booze in Spain and Germany, two countries I've never visited before!

May most likely will involve my mom taking another trip to visit my dad, leaving a weekend or two for me to see them! But the biggest deal for me, living in the South of France during this month is a no-brainer: THE INTERNATIONAL CANNES FILM FESTIVAL! I vow, right here, right now, to get into a theater and see at least one movie during the festival -- no matter how much I have to pay!

And June... I break my contract two weeks prematurely to come back home for my sister's college graduation from UC Santa Barbara. Pointless to go back to France really, so that's it. The end of my journey is in very clear sight.

But what will I be doing in June?

I feel a little bit better about my situation, because part of my time back home in California was spent researching all kinds of job opportunities. I actually found three jobs from online job boards and went ahead and applied, knowing full well that without any contacts, Internet-based job searches are futile.

But after a fabulous afternoon with Meghan, another opportunity to "apply" for a job presented itself. So, I've taken the first step and have been ensured that someone is actually going to look at my resume, furthermore it's the person who will be doing the hiring!

I hate getting too excited about things like this, because I always do and they usually don't work out for me. So fingers crossed :)

Even though I'm not ready to leave just yet, Goodbye California.

Ahhh....

Now I finally understand why people have trouble blogging in the U.S. when they've just come back from being abroad, somewhere.

Not like my life here's boring, but I think I've pretty much figured out this whole "life thing" to the point where I'm not the lovable foreigner struggling just to accomplish daily tasks here in California. So I don't really have any ridiculous/awkward/hysterical blunder stories to document because, well, I've just been catching up with friends and trying to organize the mess that is my life in boxes.

Being here though does kind of bring up a natural familiarity I've yet to experience in France.

However, I wonder how much of this is just nostalgia after moving away from college and all the friends I grew very close to over the last four years. When I do see said people though -- and one week is certainly proving to be quite an insufficient amount of time -- it's almost as if no time has passed at all. At times I've felt rather overwhelmed in France, but now I'm starting to see that the past five months have FLOWN by my eyes.

And beginning with my return next week, I'll only have three-and-a-half months left on this journey. As much fun as the ride has been, I'll be interested to see where my wings land me after it's over...

14 Signs I've Been In France Too Long:

1.) Even though I'm in the U.S. and hear English spoken EVERYWHERE, my initial reaction is to try to speak to people in French.

2.) Being excited way beyond belief at seeing my first Starbucks in New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.

3.) Opting to walk/bike to Safeway even though I have three cars to choose from.

4.) Being surprised that you don't have to pay for grocery carts.

5.) Worrying when I got to the grocery store that I didn't have my own bags (which is related to...)

6.) Disbelief that someone would actually be willing to help me out/ask how my day's going/BAG GROCERIES FOR ME!

7.) Forgetting what currency is used here and accidentally trying to pay in Euros.

8.) Being bummed out that one-dollar units are bills and not coins.

9.) Watching WAY too much Travel Channel/Food Network because it's been about 5 months since I've last done so.

10.) Forgetting how keyboards on American computers work. (Well, I have my American laptop in France, but I've only ever used French desktop keyboards, so naturally my fingers wanted to find the French keys on the first desktop I used here.)

11.) Wanting to flush the toilet with the little pull lever on top, instead of just pushing down the handle to the side.

12.) Forgetting what fluffy, machine-dried towels feel like.

13.) Being amazed at the holding-capacity of my parents' dishwasher!

...and the best indicator that I've been in France for too long:

14.) When I came home last night, everything was new and exciting, kind of like a first-time vacation even though I've lived here for 22+ years. For example: seeing the Empire Building off in the horizon when landing in NYC was akin to a never-bef0re-experience. Driving past the Golden Gate Bridge was probably more exciting than any of the other times I've ever done it. Seeing billboards and commercials in English (and not just for perfume or Nespresso) got me excited about "practicing my English."

Yeah, being in the U.S. does feel like a vacation. Not my permanent residence because I've been out of it for so long. This is probably due to the mindset that when I return, it'll be for a little over three and a half more months.

Can't sleep!

In quintessential form, Monique cannot sleep because a big trip is coming up!

So let's talk about what I've been doing today. Maybe this'll make me bored, slash tired and get me ready for bed. Though, no loss here because I don't work until 1:30 p.m. tomorrow anyways. Or is it today now ;-)

AND IT'S MY LAST DAY OF WORK FOR TWO WEEKS!

Things I'm going to accomplish in the very near future:

-Assistant party slash brunch for dinner in Cannes Friday
I've got the o.j. and champagne ready for my contribution
-FESTIVAL DE CHOCOLAT in the port of Antibes on Saturday
-Finish packing my suitcase
-Job application

I guess now's a good time to mention I'm applying for my 18th job in hopes of finding some sort of work when I get back this summer. You must all be laughing at me, because each position I apply for is totally unlike anything else I've done before. You could say I have a wide range of interests.

Anyways, this one's for a college counselor at a FRENCH HIGH SCHOOL in San Francisco. I think my chances at possibly landing this are very good. But then again, what do I know...?

Things I want to accomplish when I go home:

-Scrapbook
-Catch up with some friends
-TARGET/COSTCO RUNS!
-Read at least three books
-Mooch a "free" seven-day pass from 24-Hour Fitness
-Organize my room
-Grade all my CE2/CM1 students' tests
-Fill out CAF housing assistance forms

Things I've done today:

-Went on an aimless 50-minute walk b/c my gym membership's expired!
-Gave out four tests
-Had my students write pen pal letters to California
-Wrote out my signature on at least seven students' notebooks

I kind of felt like a weird American celebrity or something. Not sure why but they all wanted my autograph today... Strange.

And I really would like to point out this piece of information:

When helping them come up with sentences to write their pen pals, I used the generic "Do you like" sentence structure. One thing someone suggested was Harry Potter. Then a few students yelled at him and said he was stupid because, "They don't have Harry Potter in America."

Au contraire mes élèves. I proudly pointed out that Harry Potter is an Anglophone work, thus it first came out in the U.K., then the U.S. and then the rest of the world.

Then since they were on the "Do you like" roll, they all wanted to know if American students loooove Tecktonik. I had to break it to them that Tecktonik only exists in France -- thank God -- and that instead of asking if they like it, they should tell their pen pals to search YouTube for it.

I got more puzzled looks. "You know what YouTube is, too?"

My response was very English teacher-y of me: "Well, look at the word's composition. 'You' and 'Tube' are both words from what language?"

"Ahh ouais! Anglais!"

Next they asked me if I could dance it. I just stared at them blankly saying, "Uhh, no thanks."

Oh. My. God.

I've become that person. I'm now associating with the "older" generations in disapproving of the crap that kids are listening to these days....

(But can you blame me?! Nearly half of my students dress like the music video I just linked above, with the rat tails, disturbing 80s colors, mullets, and weird shavings in the sides of their heads.)

Bah, en tout cas: TWO DAYS UNTIL CALIFORNIE!!!

Ma vie n'est plus qu'en prose!!

(My life is no longer only in prose.) Nope. I hope you all don't mind, but I'm trying out different mediums to update all my favorite people -- and random passers-by, I guess! -- on my life over here in the South of France.

Elizabeth and I are fortunate enough to work in primary schools and have Wednesdays off, so she took the train from Cannes and met me at the train station in Antibes around 12:40 p.m. We then decided to grab lunch and walk allllll the way around the Cap d'Antibes in search of F. Scott Fitzgerald's residence in Juan-les-Pins. But after going the 5 km around the cape itself and still not being halfway there, we decided around 5:30 p.m. to scratch the idea and try it another day.

Here's a snippet of this lovely, albeit slightly windy, afternoon:



Oh and for clarification's sake... I said Elizabeth TOUCHED a fish today, not had fish (as in for lunch) which we thought may or may not have been poisonous. Like a jellyfish or something... that would be the reason why she'd no longer have a hand tonight. And yes, before you have time to make fun of me for it, I realize it's the Mediterranean SEA, not Ocean. My apologies, Earth.

I leave you with pictures from the adventure. Anyone who's ever lived in/visited Santa Barbara or Isla Vista might get a bit of déjà vu very shortly. Now you can see why this was such an easy transition after spending four years of my life down there!!

The view from our lunch table on the beach! How typical, sitting in the Southern French sun on the Mediterranean, eating fries, reading trashy gossip magazines! Hanging out at the stairwell of death!Tide pools down the cliffs."Naturiste beach for nudist." This tag was to be found scrawled across numerous rocks along our journey.Seriously, you're in denial if you think this DOESN'T look like SB.Waves crashing along the rocks.

...FOUR DAYS UNTIL CALIFORNIA!!

(I don't really feel like I warrant a break so quickly since the last one, but hey, I'll take it!)

Now that hope's run out, the only thing left to do is cross my fingers

...I really just wanted to try my creativity at making up an "emo" title. And it came to me really easily, so now that I'm kind of freaked out by that fact, let's get on with today's post, shall we?

Anyways, today's entry is 100 percent inspired from this sign. I think I'll be happy if I never see it again, because that'll mean I never have to return to the Medical Insurance building!


Well, you've heard my billions of complaints regarding the process necessary to obtain a French social security number, which would in turn lead to medical insurance and reimbursement! Even though I do have a "temporary" social security number to prove that I'm employed by the state of France, it is missing the final two digits required to obtain medical reimbursement.

This afternoon, thirty-five copies of everything possible in hand, I made my way back to the Assurance Maladie office for the third time in three weeks, praying not to be turned away.

You might remember last time, how I was told my birth certificate wasn't official enough? Well, I brought the ORIGINAL with me today. Upon my arrival, I did my usual take a number wait 30+ minutes routine just to be called to the "pré-accueil" desk -- pre-reception. I explained that last time I was missing one or two documents to complete my dossier for social security, so the secretary registered me in the computer as requiring an official meeting with one of the agents, prompting me to sit another 30+ minutes. I've decided not to sweat this anymore -- I even came prepared with American Psycho to read while I waited. And I finished it this week, so after my appointment, I went straight to the Médiathèque to check out more books for my flight home, but that's neither here nor there...

When my number's finally called, I tell the agent that I think I'm all set for social security. He mindlessly takes my folder, without checking anything in great detail then begins to file it away saying the number and important info will be mailed to me in a week or so. Except, I told him I had in my hand the copy of my carte de séjour and official birth certificate.

He looks at me quizzically saying, "Oh, I thought I already saw those in your folder. But you don't need the original, a copy of your birth certificate will suffice."

Nearly fuming, I tried to compose myself enough to explain to him how the last agent told me my American birth certificate wasn't acceptable in France.

So, depending on who you ask what day, my folder is complete. I even turned in my dental records from when I had an emergency run a few months back.

Which is why I say FINGERS CROSSED. Hopefully this does indeed pass France's requirements and in one week I receive both a social security number and a check for over 30 Euros returned to me from my dental visit.

And for the record, I checked out two English and two French books at the Médiathèque. Currently I'm reading One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which makes my fourth book of 2008. (Just don't mention the fact that I'm concurrently reading another, French book entitled Maintenant, qu'il fait tout le temps nuit sur toi, notice how in French they only capitalize the first letter of a title?!) Either way, I hope they last me the 14 hour flight(s) to and from San Francisco in the next few weeks, because I'm sure as heck not buying books in the United States to clutter up my suitcase for my final return in June.... which reminds me:

...FIVE MORE DAYS UNTIL CALIFORNIA!!

A sequel to mauvais temps

After that hurried little post I banged out this afternoon, the day got significantly worse. Perhaps this was the most unpleasant weather-related experience I've had to deal with all year!

Well, at first it was exciting. Like the first time you experience something "different," once you realize that it's a bother and imposing on every-day well-being, it becomes more of a burden than a novelty.

The hail and slush quickly melted off and turned into 45 minutes of non-stop torrential downpour. It wasn't that long really, but strong enough to cause mass flooding all down my street. I even saw the underground drainage system overflowing with water, running down the streets only adding to the car-size puddles in the roads. Because of this, the local police deemed it unsafe for cars to "float" down the street and subsequently closed off all roads near my apartment complex. Cool right? I could walk down the street, listening to my iPod in peace, without having to worry about French jackass drivers plowing through the puddles and unnecessarily spraying me with nasty road-water.

Except when the rain started coming in stinging angles and my pants were soaked higher than the knees -- front and back -- I realized it's probably worth the 1 Euro to take the bus. Well, that was 35 minutes into my walk, I was nearly halfway and sat and waited for the bus. However, since all roads north of me were closed, that meant the bus changed routes so I was left waiting in vain 20 minutes for a bus that never came!

Either way, I called my school and warned them that I'd be a little late because the floods were blocking my normal route and I couldn't hop on the bus like normally.

...Little did I know, my tardiness was pretty low on the grand scale of the day's events at my second school.

Now, I'm going to put out a radical statement here. I'm going to demonstrate, in my one small life-observation, how one English assistant's daily experience is a microcosm for France's immigration policy as a whole.

The second school at which I teach on Mondays and Fridays, and the following statement is by no means an over-exaggeration: is 75 percent populated by children of immigrants, notably from Northern Africa. Actually, I would venture to say that UNDER 25 percent of the students there are white and/or native French citizens.

This is mainly because Antibes is one of many French cities where children have to attend the closest school to their residential units. Thus, the school -- can I point out that it's right on the train tracks -- is plopped right in the middle of the immigrant district.

Why do I mention this fact?

Because after attending my other, whiter school this morning in the rain, nothing out of the ordinary happened. But when I arrived 10 minutes late at Juan-Gare, I noticed all the teachers were suited up in their rain gear, yelling at all 250 students in the courtyard (playground I guess as we'd call it in the U.S.). When I went up to the teachers' room to drop off my stuff and dry off a bit, I noticed no one was up there. Then I noticed one person running down from the third story, absolutely drenched, warning me not to go into any of the rooms. That's because a massive leak was dripping water from the third floor, including the now over-flowing toilets, all the way down to the first. The directrice deemed it unsafe for students to be in class, because should there be a fire -- HIGHLY unlikely in this sopping weather -- all fire exists were blocked and/or running with water. It would only take one student to fall down those stairs to cause a lawsuit that would eventually close down the school.

But my point here is that the rainstorm really was not that long. It lasted for 45 whole minutes. Where was the school district's maintenance crew? Why did one small leak cause such a massive problem? Why didn't the white school have this "inconvenience," as the administration kept referring to it, so not to verbally step on anyone's toes by pointing out the blatant racism at hand in this situation.

Well, it affected me, too. For two of the three hours after lunch, all the students were free to run around outside until the janitorial staff mopped up all the water. Luckily, the sun came out and halted any further damage from happening. So, as useless as I was, I was told to stay at the school during my normal hours, until someone decided it was ok to return to the classrooms.

Well, I only got in 40 minutes of actual instruction, which essentially was supposed to be a review session for Friday's unit test. Since two-thirds of my students never received such a review, I now have to push the test back until after the two-week winter break and expect them to have studied up and be ready to go.

Please, God, let my students be disciplined enough to study over the next two weeks without instruction...

Ya de la grêle!

I will definitely post more about this later.

BUT, I have to run (um, maybe I'm going to rethink running) to my classes in Juan-les-Pins in a few seconds, literally. Interestingly enough, I decided against paying 12 Euros for a bus pass this month, because I'm probably only going to take the bus four or five times in February.

Anyways, I'm getting ready to walk to my second school today which is about 50 minutes by foot -- I kind of want the exercise.

That might be a little tricky because IT'S HAILING RIGHT NOW!!! And I'm not sure, but I think the rain's also turning into soft little snow flakes, which are melting as soon as they hit the ground.

Perhaps I'm going to rethink my decision to not take the bus...

...SIX DAYS UNTIL CALIFORNIA!!!

(UPDATED) Hi, make up your mind....

Maryann et moi, holding our beers.

Alright, you've heard me rant and rave about how much I miss home and don't want to stay in France forever. After this weekend, I finally feel like I'm finding my place here. Maybe that sentiment has to do with the recent acquisition of my long-stay residency card, but I doubt it. I think I'm getting more attached because I'm finally going back to the U.S. for a little bit.

Figures...

And now for a brief explanation of this weekend's events: My classes at Juan-Gare FINALLY behaved, all of them, for the first time in the five months I've been here!! I actually gave a damn Friday and got all dressed up because I was not going to the gym after class. When my students saw me, they all told me, "Comme vous êtes belle aujourd'hui!" I honestly hope that was not the reason they paid attention. Especially my CM2 boys, who last time in very vulgar French said something about my chest which I did not want to think too hard about translating.

Anyways after class, I waited for the train in the direction of Marseille, hopped on and took it 20 minutes to Cannes. Then I quickly figured out the bus and took it up to Le Cannet where I met Maryann and Elizabeth. After a brief stop at Casino, we had all we needed to make a big assistants' dinner for about six of us. Bellies full, we then hopped back on the bus towards downtown Cannes (I believe it may have been La Croisette) where I FINALLY enjoyed my first move in France! Well, I'm not sure how much I really enjoyed it per-se, but we did see Sweeney Todd in English. I will admit it was very different and I'm kind of weak when it comes to blood and gore, but it was well done. Maybe it was the wine in me that thought so.... I'm not so sure if wine dinners before the movie theater is such a good idea.


Afterwards, we went to an Irish pub nearby and Maryann and I ordered a Monaco and Demi-Pêche -- light beers with cherry and peach syrup, respectively. You can probably guess WHAT provoked this idea, but we all decided to hurry back to Maryann's and took the 12:30 bus to her place in the middle of a downpour accompanied by thunder/lightning on a mission to make a dark chocolate orange cake from scratch. It was DELISH and I was probably the only one who fell promptly asleep around 3 a.m.

Saturday was pretty lazy -- gosh I wonder why -- but the morning started off well with freshly-cooked French Bread and maple syrup, followed by a big chili lunch with the rest of the chocolate cake. Then I boarded the 3 p.m. train back to Antibes and hit up the gym. Today was pretty lazy again, but Maryann returned the favor when she came to visit me here and I made a reallllly yummy summer salad. I think I'll have to post the recipe later!

But I've been thinking a lot about what I want/should do when I get home. None of the job "offers"/suggestions/thoughts I initially had seem like they're going to be working out. Because of that, I've begun to think more about this whole "travel" thing.

And, though I'll explain more in the future, I'm seriously entertaining the idea of teaching English in a Spanish-speaking country for a (very) short amount of time. Not like what I'm doing here, but possibly on an island or in Central/South America, just until the end of the summer.

Ah, I doubt it'll happen, but it sounds like a neat idea.

Ask me next week what I want to do with my life -- I bet it'll be the eighteenth different response you'll get from me. My flavor of the week if you will...