Pas de chauffage = pas d’ecole!

So today is Monday. It’s normally my longest day of teaching each week, but today there was a little surprise! I had a 9 o’clock class at my first school and didn’t have a second class till 11am, at my second school. During the 10 o’clock hour I made photocopies of “Frosty the Snowman” lyrics for my afternoon classes, and while online to access the document, I noticed I had a new e-mail. This e-mail was from one of my collegues at my second school saying “pas de chauffage = pas d’ecole!” (No heating = no school!)

Upon reading this message, I smiled big! I was done for the day and it was only 10:15. I stayed at my first school in the copy room and teacher’s lounge making sure I prepared everything I wanted to before heading home. On my way walking to the bus, I ran into some of my students. I verfied with the four girls that classes really had been canceled and they assured me ‘Oui, madame. Tout est annule! Vous pouvez aller chez vous!” (Yes, ma’am. Everything’s cancelled. You can go back to your house!)

I arrived home promptly at noon, ate lunch, took a trip to the grocery store, made a handmade Christmas card (with French newspaper clippings) for someone I completely left off my Christmas card list, and read! This morning I was ending book 3 and now I’m going to bed having just started book 5. The book itself is just one book, however, it’s complied of 5 books within it. Today I finished “Ruth”, read all of “Bathsheba” and began “Mary”. If anyone is looking for a great Christmas present to give to a female, I recommend this book! I can’t say it enough. It is sooo moving! God is teaching me so much through it and it’s completely rocking my world. I seriously cannot put it down. I’m happy I have tomorrow off so I can finish it. However, I’ll be honest, it’s been tough to read such a Biblically focused book and still have a desire to read my Bible afterwards before going to bed. It’s like I almost want to replace the Bible with book and call it a night. But that’s wrong, because though this book is Biblical, it’s fiction. Oh, but it’s so wonderful of a book; it’s thought provoking, it’s encouraging, it’s gripping, it’s enlightening, and it’s so personal. Despite these stories having to do with 5 different women in the Bible, they’re so easy to relate to (ok not in all senses: obviously, I’m not a mother, or prostitute, or widow, or adultress) because like these women, I’m a girl. Just a plain old girl that loves God and yearns to please Him. A daughter of the King who, despite finding it difficult, only wants to bring honor to Him in my everyday life. Ok, I’ll stop ranting, just go read the book. It’ll be worth it.

My plans for tomorrow (my day off) include going Christmas shopping. I don’t think I’ve ever waited this long (Dec. 15th) to begin my shopping. Anywho, I have 7 gifts to buy (6 are for people and 1 is a grab gift for work). Anyone have any suggestions for my school’s faculty Christmas party grab gift?!?! (I’m open to any and all suggestions!!) I’m heading to the mall, and two Christmas markets hoping I can find everything I need to get. Wish me luck!

This weekend…

Ok sorry, it’s been days since I bloggd. Sorry. To recap this weekend, I’ll give you the highlights.

Friday:
– I didn’t have to teach because my one school was closed for the Swine Flu. (Please continue to pray that I won’t get sick. I’ve been fortunate so far.)
–My other school, where I don’t have classes on Fridays, had a grave incident happen. A few boys brutally beat another little boy during recess. I don’t want to give you any names of people, or which school was involved, but it’s been all over the news/newspapers this weekend. Pray for the one boy because he is currently in the hospital with serious damage, and also for the other boys because their punishment is coming from the police, not the principal.
– On a lighter note, Friday night I had my first of four Christmas parties. We had a lot of fun! Here’s a picture:

Katie, Berenice, Elizabeth, me, and Sarah

Saturday:
– Monika, Guillaume, and I stayed in pajamas until dinner. It was so fun. We all did homework/lesson plans all day.
–Guillaume took me to my first ever rugby match! He spent an hour that afternoon explaining the rules to me.
– The match was very fun – despite LOU (Lyon’s team) losing, and despite it rained the whole night. Pictures to follow:

Me and Gui (while still sitting under the awning)!

Sorry this is a little blurry.

I told you it rained! ...look how dirty those players are!

– Guillaume and I had a very delicious, very French dinner at is mum’s. We ate pumpkin soup, salad, tuna pie, cheese and bread, a Charlotte cake, and a Christmas log. Plus wine. Everything was so good. We didn’t leave till after 11pm. (We started eating at 8ish.)
–Anne, Guillaume’s mum, decided that she and G and his sister are no longer going north for Christmas. (1. because the train tickets are expensive and 2. so i can partake in a French family Christmas.) This is super sweet to think of me, since I’m staying, but puts me in a funny predicament because I already told two other American teachers they could come over for Christmas Eve and spend the night and then spend all day the 25th together. But now they can’t cause G and his mum and sister will all be here. Hmmm…don’t know what to do?!

Sunday:
– I went to church and sang as part of the choir. (There’s not normally a choir at church – but because we were doing all Christmas carols, today there was.) It’s been a while since I’ve been a part of a choir. It was very fun. I even got to do a solo intro with an alto for “Little town of Bethelem” and “It came upon a midnight clear”. Church was packed, also, because it was being recorded for Lyon’s Christian Radio Station.
– I spent the afternoon finishing lessons for the week and reading.
–I believe I’ve failed to mention I’m reading a new book. After being coerced by the other girls at Bible Study, I’ve begun to read “A Lineage of Grace” by Francine Rivers. It’s in English, and that’s the only problem I have with it. Other than that however, I can’t seem to put it down. I find myself praying to God to let my morning commute go as slow as possible just so I can read more. For any woman out there, Christian or not, you should all go read this book! It’s so englightening and without you even knowing it, it will bring you closer to God.

Christmas Cards

Ok these are pics from Saturday with our whole group:

All of us during Guillaume's tour around the city!

During dinner - enjoying the raclette!

My Christmas cards are done! WOOOOOO HOOOOO!!!

I put up a status today on Facebook saying: “If we hire accountants to do our taxes during tax season, we should definitely hire writers to do our Christmas cards during the Christmas season.” I thought it was a clever statement! So today, this will be fast because all I want to do right now is read, and then go to bed! Today was an easy day. I went to school, only worked the morning, was home by noon. On my way home I stopped by BNP and ordered checks. I was wondering why I’d yet to receive them – hmm, well, that’s because you don’t just automatically get them with a CHECKING account…you have to ask for them. Long story short: I asked and they’re arriving on Tuesday! This afternoon was spent finishing Christmas cards! Yay, they’re all done! (They’re also in the mail, so those of you that are close to me, start checking your mailboxes in a few days!) I watched the season finale of Glee. It’s so sad that 13 episodes have already gone by. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to wait till next season to find out what happens. At six, I met Lesley, her mum (who’s in town for the week), Jaime, Anne, Katie, and Sarah at Bellecour. Lesley’s mum wanted to meet all of us, so she took us out to dinner. Since restaurants don’t open till 7ish, we went and had a drink at a brasserie first. The restaurant we eventually went to was called “Le Caveau”. It was my second time going. The food was great like the first time, and so was the waitstaff. Our waiter, realizing early on, that all the girl’s knew French, but that Lesley’s mum didn’t, he taught her key phrases to help her get through dinner at French restaurant: “c’est bon”, “c’est tres bon”, “c’est trop bon”, “oui”, “pas de probleme”, etc. He was a very sweet waiter. I had ravolis in a lemon cream (really weird, but surprisingly good) for an appetizer, tarteiflette (mix of potatoes, cheese, and meat) for my dinner, and chocolate mousse for dessert. I couldn’t finish my chocolate mousse and that made me want to cry.

Now I’m home. I’m not working tomorrow because everyone’s got the flu, so I offered to “babysit” Lesley’s mum. We’ll see if she calls me! Then tomorrow night I have a Christmas party to go to. This is with other teachers, but not my faculty party! Bonne nuit!

8 Decembre

Ok so this will be about December 8th, but also today, the 9th, as well. So yesterday was the 8th, which is the actual official day for la fete des lumieres. I didn’t work, because it was Tuesday, nor did we have Bible Study because we figured everyone would go out for the last night of lights. I passed the day beginning Christmas cards, loading pictures online of the weekend, planning lessons for next week (last week before Christmas) and hanging out with Tom and Guillaume. When the sun went down, I lit my little candles and put them out on the balcony. That’s what you do if you’re Lyonnais and Catholic. Not being Lyonnais – but a fake one for the year, and not being Catholic – yet still believing we could thank God (not mary) for saving us from many things in our life, I did as all my French neighbors did and lit my bougees (candles).

Les bougees sur mon balcon!

When I did finally leave my apartment, I prayed they wouldn’t burn the place down. Knowing they were on the balcony and not indoors made me feel a little better – I figured the wind would blow out the flames before I got home anyway.

So, off I went. I met a bunch of other American teachers at Monplasir Lumiere where there was a final light show going on. Here are a bunch of houses, rather windows I passed on the way. Everyone had candles in their window sills.

We stayed and watched the whole thing and were showered with confetti which was spewn from all over at the very end. When it finished, we went over to Emily and Rachel’s house (which was right down the road) for tea and wine…and random candy corn that Rachel’s mum had sent her for Halloween/Thanksgiving. We all indulged ourselves in the foreign candy that we had missed so much this past fall. Also, her mum had sent magazines, and though they were outdated we spent time looking through them for all the American gossip we’re missing out on. On a positive, produtive note, we did also talk about teaching and what are plans were for next week. Wanting to keep to American fashion, we all contemplated showing Christmas movies, because who are we kidding – that is all American kids do in school the week before Christmas break!!

Katie and Maty engrossed in U.S. Weekly!

Sara screamed when Rachel brought these out to share!

Ok, on to today: Today was an early day. Got up at 5:30am, took a different bus streets away from where I live (due to the strike) but somehow made it to school early. On my way walking to the bus, you could see the remainder of candles that lasted throughout the night. I think I only passed two that were still flickering away at 6:30am. Pretty imressive for a little bougee. My four classes passed fast – that’s what I love about Wednesday’s being half-days. I also paid my money, 13 euro, for our faculty Christmas party. Another teacher warned me that the meal is catered thus not making it very traditionally French, but she promised me I’d still have an enjoyable evening. I’m excited. I talked Fraenzi, the German department assistant to go as well. So, she and I will be the youngins there – but at least we’ll have each other. When school ended, I rode the bus home with another teacher. Normally, I would have read, but because she was there, talked the whole way into town. She asked how my time here has been, and a couple other small questions and then, as blunt as could be asked “So the big question is…have you found a french lover?” I laughed so hard when she asked me and disappointed her when I said non. She said “Pas de soucis – il reste de temps.” (No worries, there’s still time.)

My afternoon was spent continuing to hack away at Christmas cards, and skyping with my friend Erikk who’s in Scotland, but coming to visit me in January. I’m so excited!!! I also took a nap, and then streamed “The Blind Side” offline and cried the whole time watching it. (Everyone needs to go see the movie!) I said bye to Tom who left tonight, and then had dinner, and now I’m blogginig. You’re caught up on my life, and now I’m going to bed!

Bonne nuit! Seize jours jusqu’a Noel!

La fete des lumieres!!!

Ok, so this blog is going to sum up the entire weekend. Because it’s going to cover 3 days, plus Monday, I won’t write a ton. (Mais, on verra…on sais jamais avec moi!) That being said, let’s go back to Friday.

Friday:
I believe I mentioned in Thursday’s blog that I didn’t have classes on Friday because so many students had the flu. Well, despite not having to work, I found myself “working” in other ways around the house. I cleaned, I cooked, I shopped some more, and awaited our many guests that would be arriving that evening. During the afteroon, I made a turkey pot pie and put it in the fridge – it was being saved for dinner. I also made raisin and chocolate chip cookies. I wrote a long note to Ben who would be arriving at some point from England in case he got home when either Monika or I were out. I skyped with Sarah from home for a while and then headed to the train station to get Diana. Monika’s boyfriend, Mohammed, we found out was comng in on the same train as Diana so Monika and I went to the station together. When we got home I put the pie in the oven and planned the weekend ahead with Diana. Momo and Monika joined us for dinner and in very French fashion (despite none of us being French) we sat at the table for over 3 hours. Just when we were about to clear the table we heard a knock on the door. Rather, we heard someone fumbling with the key and unsuccessfully unlocking the door. Trying to pull a fast one, Momo opened the door and Monika and I pretended to be French, and not G’s roommates. Ben, who arrived with Claire (another English girl), I think were a litte startled. I finally said in French, “would you prefer to speak in English?” They said it didn’t matter and that French was fine, but as soon as I said it really wasn’t an issue for me cause I’m American, everyone got a good laugh out of their reactions. Anywho, they sat down, finished off the rest of the pie, and stayed at the table for at least another 2 hours. Our conversation did eventually change from French to English and Monika, who studied last year in Canada, said it was hard to understand Ben and Claire’s accents! (This made my night because normally Europeans are used to hearing British accents and find North American accents challenging to decipher.) It was late when we all finally went to bed.

Saturday:
Saturday I got up early. Knowing G’s flight from England didn’t even arrive at St. Exupery until 8, and figuring he wouldn’t be home till after 9am, I took the liberty of playing the hostess of the apartment and made a big breakfast. I made two batches of Monkey Bread and a large vegetable quiche. At some point while I was cooking in the kitchen and everyone else was still asleep, I heard our doorbell ring. It didn’t ring just once, but numerous times. Knowing it wasn’t a post office person, I rushed to the door about ready to kill Guillaume for potentially waking everyone up. Well, nope, it wasn’t G. Instead, a young man stood at the door and said “Bonjour. Je cherche Guillaume.” (Hello, I’m looking for Guillaume.) I responded with a clever, “he’s not here, but come in anyway”. Ben, who had been sleeping on the pull out couch had woken up and I said to Tom, the German standing at the door, “je crois que tu connais Ben la-bas?” (I believe you know Ben over there.) Well, the two boys were estatic to see one another thus waking up Claire, and Diana. With Tom came a bag full of croissants and pain au chocolats. So, overall, we had a really big breakfast. We ate and lounged at the table (we all said we had a “food como” from all the food) until Guillaume arrived. When he got home he went straight for the monkey bread. haha. Actually, the monkey bread was a huge hit with the foreigners. Ben said it was delicous and Tom, after eating only one piece declared “Oh gosh, this stuff’s going to kill me. I’m not going to be able to stop eating it.” After breakfast/brunch, Diana and I headed back to the train station to pick up her friend Becca, who I also invited last minute to come to Lyon and stay at my apartment for the light festival. We already had 9 at the apartment, why not make it 10? After we got Becca, we did all the sights in Lyon. We met up with G and his friends later and then let G be the tour guide. He took us places that I’d yet to see in Lyon, so it was great! We ended the afternoon at the top of the “crayon” (Guillaume’s “special place” – the Radisson hotel – the only skyskraper in Lyon) for a magnificent view of sunset and a warming cup of coffee. We parted ways shortly after. We all met back up at the apartment for a HUGE raclette dinner (so French!!) a little later. The girls and I did some shopping (which they wanted to do) and the others did grocery shopping for that night’s dinner. By the time we actually ate, it was close to 10pm. It took us a while to cook the potatoes, cut the cheese (no pun intended), arrange all the meat, etc. However, we had the best dinner I think I’ve had since being in Lyon. I mean, Thanksgiving dinner was great two weeks ago, but it was hectic. This raclette dinner, sitting around a bunch of foreigners like myself was contenting. (I forgot to mention that during the day, Aline, a Geman girl, arrived as well.) So at the table we had 3 Americans, 2 Germans, 2 English, and 1 French. Yes, that’s only 8 people – Monika and Momo went out for dinner this night, so they didn’t partake. After dinner we stayed around the table for hours enjoying dessert (baked apples, apple pie, and brownies), conversation (mostly in French, but often times trilingual with a mix of English and German as well), the company (which despite being of different nationalities found common ground with mocking each others’ accents/languages! – especially between the English and Americans, but it was all in good fun!), and card games. In fact the card game we played almost made the night. It was so fun, and despite being a first-time player, I won a couple times! (I used the “I don’t know what I’m doing” trick a little much, but hey, it got my questions answered and it made people think I didn’t understand, when really I did. I know, I know, I’m sneaky.)

Getting ready for raclette!

Sunday:
On Sunday morning, keeping up with hostess duties, I got up early to make banana bread. Despite not having baking soda, it still came out ok. I left the apartment at 10 for church, and got home a little after noon. I joined G’s gang for a quick snack (since they were all just then eating breakfast) and then heading into the city to meet Diana and Becca (who had gotten up early to see more of Lyon.) Us Americans got to see a good bit before the girls had to take their train back to Dijon at 7pm. It was incredibly hectic getting around town sicne there were thousands of people in the street this weekend. Also, the metro and busses, and trams we’re running really slow: 1. because the TCL thought this weekend would be a good one to go on strike (yet again) and 2. because there were so many people taking public transportation. At some point Sunday it started raining making us all worry there wouldn’t be any fireworks, but luckily there still was. After dropping the girls off at the train, I went home to pack my lunch, pick out clothes, and plan a lesson. WhenI finished I met G and his clan in the city for the fireworks. They were really pretty. When they ended, we walked around town to see all the light exbibits on the major buildings. They were gorgeous. When we finally left the city, it was 11:30 and midnight by the time we got home. I didn’t go to bed till one because I was putting finishing touches on my lessons and playing cards with the boys. Oh yes, Aline left as well as Claire that evening (and Mohommed), so it was just me, Monika, and the boys Sunday night.

Because I did all the cooking - I wasn't allowed to touch the dishes. HAHA!

The ferris wheel with the world lit up in the middle.

St. Jean's church (and Guillaume's head)

Poor Aline got her Nutella waffle smashed into her face by the boys...

Ben and Claire walking down the lit up streets.

Hotel de Ville

The lights outside the Opera.

Lights up the hill at Croix-Rousse.

Monday:
On Monday I got up early and tried not to wake Ben who was sleeping in the living room. G and Tom were in his room, so they couldn’t hear anything. I left at 7:30, but not before waking Ben to say bye (haha – he requested the night before I said bye. It was sweet. He and I hit it off really well despite him saying “Americans would sound just like the English if they weren’t so lazy with pronouncing their “t”’s as “d”’s. haha. He made a valid point. That’s exactly what we do!) So I waited for almost an hour for the bus, due to the strike, and got to school late. A hall monitor was keeping my kids knowing farewell I was late because of the busses. When I arrived, one little boy (one of my wise cracks) said, “Madame, you’re late. Where is your late pass from the office?!” HAHA, it made me laugh so hard. I couldn’t be mad at him because it was funny, and he did say it in English, so I was glad. My lessons were talking about Thomas Edison and how he invented the incadescent electric lightbulb. We then tied this in to this weekend’s light festival. One child said “So really we should be thanking Thomas and not Mary this weekend for the lights”. I almost feel off my desk (I like to sit on my desk) when he said this. The history of the light festival is that the Lyonnais prayed to Mary two hundred years ago and held a candle vigil to relieve them of a sickness throughout the city. Mary saved them all and since then every year there’s a light festival and everyone says “Merci Marie”. But after my lesson my youngest kids (6eme) started saying “Merci Thomas”. haha. It took me two hours to get home on the bus due to the strike. But I was surprisingly welcomed home to a roast, baked potatoes, and greenbeans prepared by the Tom and Guillaume. It was delicious. We stayed at the table for hours just talking. At one point I took out my yearbook from senior year because we were talking about American schooling. Tom, who has yearbooks in Germany, still thought it was cool, but Guillaume was amazed. There’s no such thing in France. We finally went to bed at some point.

Polish Prunes

HAHA – I’ll come back to the title.

Ok, so today was great! I had classes in the morning, and though my kids misbehaved to the max, the classes themselves passed quickly. I wrote referrals for two girls. It was rather annoying. And sad. I hate when kids get into trouble/talk back to me just to get a rouse out of their classmates/fit in with their classmates. I had one girl tell me my shoes were ugly (not to my face- to her friend, but I oveheard). I was wearing Danskos. I wish these kids realized that fashion was not something the French dictated, and therefore meaning my shoes could be stylish elsewhere…like the US where a lot of teachers and nurses wear them. Tantpis (Oh well.) I don’t let 14 year olds get to me – if I did, I’d be a burnt out teacher after one year.

When I got home from school, Monika was getting ready for her day. Because it’s Thursday and she doesn’t have classes, she spent the day shopping (grocery shopping) in 3 different stores, and cleaning the apartment. I spent the afternoon decorating for Christmas. Our sapin (Christmas tree) is up, and decorated…in French fashion. The French don’t put lights on their tree – merely garland, and colorful garland. In the huge bag of stuff that Anne brought over the other day, I found at least 10 strings of garland – all different colors. Needless to say, we have a rainbow Christmas tree. Taking after my dear mother, I think it’s tacky – all the colors and all – and would prefer just white lights and solid colored (all the same color) balls, but beggars can’t be choosers. I’m not going to complain because I’m lucky to have decorations provided for me…I’m saving money that other teachers are spending quite a lot on. However, I think I’m going to give in and buy a string of lights (even though they’re really expensive here) because a Christmas tree just HAS to light up on Christmas morning! Here’s a picture:

Can you see all the colors?!?!

Along with the tree, I also hung a wreath, a mobile of angels, other Christmas knick-nack stuff, and I changed all the hand-made pumpkin cut outs to Christmas ornaments. So now there’s paper ornaments on all the windows/doors.

Because Monika was preparing the apartment (by cleaning) for our many guests (our total is at 9!) this weekend (fete de lumieres), I took the liberty of making dinner for the two of us. I also made a legitimate dinner because Guillaume’s friend Ben (guest #1) was ariving from England (even though Guillaume’s still there – Guillaume handed off his key to Ben. haha). Afraid this poor Ben wouldn’t have had dinner on his flight and afraid he would be too hesitant to take food out of our fridge, I made a big meal. I made baked chicken (which was absolutey delicious, I’m not going to lie – I can’t wait to eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow), green beans, mashed potatoes (real ones) and an apple pie (from scratch). Monika, after coming back from her 3rd trip to the grocery store exclamed…”Erin, I love when you cook. You make our apartment smell like a home.” Her words touched my heart, but it’s so true! Home is associated with smells, and having good smells (even a mix between an apple pie and garlic chicken together) aids in helping make something a home – somewhere where everyone is loved.

During dinner we impatiently awaited Ben (not knowing what time he would arrive). We finally gave in and started eating around 9. Monika loved my food, as did I. I was very proud of it! And while eating dessert, my traditionally-American apple pie, she commented, “Though this is very American I’ve tasted this before. I can’t remember where.” Time passed and we spent dinner talking about Christmas in the US vs. France vs. Poland. In Poland, apparently, on Christmas Eve, families eat 12 courses (for the 12 apostles in the Bible). There has to be at least two soups, two deserts, and ravolis. Also, there has got to be PRUNES! I died laughing when I heard this and then explained to her that generally-speaking, prunes are what old people eat in the US. She got a big kick out of hearing it and then said “So, what, I’m an old lady!”. Immediately following, she yelled “Mcdonalds!” I was so confused. She continued, “That’s where I’ve had apple pie before. Your apple pie tastes just like Mcdonald’s apple pie!” I took it as a compliment and then laughed at her American association.

After dinner, I cleaned up, while she went to her room to study for finals. As it got later and later, I finally wrote Ben a note saying “Sorry we went to bed. There’s food in the fridge -please eat it, it’s delicious! Make yourself at home.” Literally one minute after writing my note (it was much longer, and nicer, mind you, than what I’ve just written) my phone vibrates. It’s Anne, who had just received a call from Guillaume in England saying Ben had some passport mishap at the airport and won’t be arriving till tomorrow.

So, it’s now midnight, the apartment is fully clean, and fully decorated and smelling of an international “home” (since it’s an American/French/Polish mix). Our bellies are full of good food thus making us tired. My classes are cancelled tomorrow a cause de la grippe A (because of the flu – so many people have the flu right now!). Pray that I don’t get it. I’ve been lucky so far. I’ve had one little head cold for a few days since arriving, and I’d like to keep it at that. I have a Skype date with Sarah (best friend from HS) and I’m getting Diana (also a friend from HS) at the train station tomorrow night. She’s doing the same teaching program through the Embassy as me for the year, but in Dijon, and is staying the weekend with me (and our other 7 people) for la fete de lumieres! Ok, well I’m off to bed!

Bonne nuit! Vingt et un jours jusqu’a Noel!

December 1st – wow!

Ok so this blog is for yesterday (Dec. 1st) and today (the 2nd). Before I start I just want to announce that IT’S DECEMBER!!! Where has the past 3 months gone??? Anywho, yesterday, was a Tuesday, thus I wasn’t working. I slept in late and then spent the morning and afternoon prepping for Bible Study. I led the lesson, and I decided to do it in the form of a Power Point. I added songs and lots of graphics and talked about the importance of advent – the month of December waiting for Christ’s arrival. Around 6 I headed off to Part-Dieu (mall) with Anne. She wanted to buy some Christmas decorations, and I wanted to just look. At 7:30, we went over to Joelle’s house and Bible Study was great. We had 10 girls. It seems to always be this way – though there are men in the young adult group, it always seems to be the girls that regularly attend Bible Study. It’s very sad and worth prayer – motivated, young, Christian men. Everyone liked my Power Point and the topic I chose to speak on and it let to a lot of discussion afterwards. It was great! When I got home I went straight to bed, because Wednesdays are my early morning.

Ok, onto today: I got up to my alarm at 5:30, and though only getting about 6 hours of sleep I woke up with an attitude of “Hello Wednesday -I’m ready!” It was weird, but once I was up, I was going. I made an amazing pot of coffee and just started my day off very happy. At school everything went well, too. My classes were great, and upon leaving at noon (Wednesday’s are half-days) I bumped into Franzi. She is the assistant this year to the German department. She works at the middle school (with me) but also the high school in town. Because she works at the high school, she gets practically free lodging, with Anne (friend from VA). Well, after BS last night, Anne and I had planned to go to Ikea today in search of more Christmas decorations. Well, I walked with Franzi back to the high school and had lunch with her and Anne.

After eating, we bore the cold (it was so incredibly cold today) and headed off to Ikea. We met Jaime and Lesley on the way, and together, the four of us had a blast. Since I wasn’t planning on buying really anything (my landlord already dropped off a bunch of decorations) I just pushed the cart. We had a really fun time and even did some tree shopping in the parking lot, too. FYI – French people buy incredibly small Christmas trees. The tallest one I saw was about my height – and that’s not saying much! Here’s a picture of Lesley:

The tree she's touching was 28 euro!

After Ikea, I headed home, but not before buying a baguette from the patisserie down the street. When the woman handed me the bread, it was warm. I couldn’t help but start nibbling on it while I walked home. I ended up eating that for dinner. The whole baguette…with nothing else – no butter, no cheese, no meat, no jelly, nothing! haha. I organized my lesson for tomorrow and then watched “Gone with the wind” that Anne let me borrow. It’s now midnight (that movie is so long) and it just ended.

Monika came into the living room and one point wanting to chat about this weekend: la fete de lumieres. It’s a big deal and we’re going to have a full apartment. The long and short of it is Lyon decorates the whole city in Christmas lights and people travel from all over to see it. So Guillaume has 4 people coming for the weekend, Monika’s beau is coming, and my girlfried, Diana, from high school who’s doing the same teachig program through the Embassy (but in Dijon) is coming to visit as well. There will be 9 of us in our apartment! haha. Oh yeah, so anyway, Monika came in while I was watching the movie and said “What movie is this?” I told her what is was and she said “Oh I know this! With Scaret O’Hara! I had to read the book in high school.” I couldn’t believe it. We didn’t even have to read this book in high school. We then proceeded to have an intellectual conversation on the word “yankee” and why if I northerner says it, it’s no big deal, but if a southerner calls a northerner one, it’s derogatory.

Ok, well, like I said, it’s midnight, so I need to go to bed. Sorry.
Bonne nuit!

“I’m proud of you…”

Ok, so today was Monday – thus my really long day. But yay for me, I didn’t have one of my classes because the 6th graders were on a field trip. So, I had my normal 9am class – those kids are always good. My normal 11am class – my crap class. My 2pm was cancelled, but I still had my 3pm class – those kids are also really good. Well, as usual I had my hour break in between 10-11am. I was hanging around the teachers lounge at my first school writing what I had just done with my 9am class into my planner for my personal memory, and in walks Prince Charming. Ok, not really, but a very good looking French man walks into the teacher’s lounge. I wanted to figure out who he was because only teachers are allowed in the teacher’s lounge, and I’d never seen him before, therefore I didn’t suspect him to be a teacher. Well, he says “Bonjour” and sits across from me at the table. Within a minute, he pulls out an English textbook, the same one my kids use, and my eyes widen. “Is he an Englsh teacher?” I wondered. I really was tempted to just say something in English and find out, but I held my tongue. Finally he piped up and asked me a question about what time the bell rings, or something along those lines, so I fill him in. It turns out, he’s the remplacant (replacement) for Madame S. (I’m trying to be more discrete in my blog, sorry. I don’t want people to ever realize I’m talking about them…though, my collegues don’t know I have a blog, so I’m good.) Anywho, this particular woman, a fellow English teacher, is on leave for a few weeks for surgery. Mr. Prince Charming is her sub. And guess what, he really does know English. He also knows Italian. We talked for a few minutes and I told him what classes to watch out for. Then I left and headed off to my second school.

My 11am class, my crap class, (I know I shouldn’t refer to them as that, but they are the most misbehaved kids on this earth. Seriously.) was remarkably different today. It was as if something just snapped and they all of a sudden wanted to learn. Either that, or it was the fact I gave them new seats today. Either way, PRAISE GOD! My kids were angels today. I was impressed. I really wanted them to know I was happy with their performance, so at the end of class, and in French, so they’d completely understand, I told them: “Vous avez bien travaille aujourd’hui. C’etait tellement different que d’habitude. Je suis tres contente et je suis fiere de vous!” (You all worked really well today. It was completely different than how you normally act. I am very pleased and very proud of you.) When I got to the last part , “I’m very proud of you”, it was as if time stood still. They all got so quiet and looked at me as if it was the first time anyone’s ever said that to them. One girl finally spoke up and said “Merci madame, nous aimons beacoup d’avoir classe avec vous.” (Thank you madam, we really like having class with you.) After she said thank you, a bunch of others also chimed in and thanked me. It was a completely whirlwind. My kids have never acted like this. I felt really sorry for them. No one has ever taught them how to appreciate school, appreciate teachers, appreciate the subject their studying, appreciate praise and personal attention fom the teacher, etc. I’m thinking this particular class just needs much more postive reinforcement instead of negative jabs at them all the time, and they’ll succeed. They just need someone to have faith in them. I’m deciding today, to change my premeditated attitude towards them. They don’t deserve that. They need people to believe in them, and afterwards, to be proud of them. And that’s going to be me!

After eating lunch, and remembering I didn’t have my 2 o’clock class, I called Anne. Since she lives at the high school where she’s teaching (in the same town as my middle schools) I asked her if she was working. She was also free till 2:30, so I headed over to her apartment for a cup of tea. It was nice to just kick my feet up for a few minutes in the middle of the day. While there, I snagged a few DVDs to borrow from her. I’m excited to watch “Slumdog Millionaire” as soon as I finish this blog!

The rest of my day was fine, normal. The 9th graders at 3pm were so bored. Even I wanted to fall asleep in class. We had to talk about jobs and listen to an oral activity on a CD like 5 times. The CDs that coorespond with the text book drive me crazy. They always have British people doing the dialogue. It bugs me. Oh well. It’s still English, I can’t complain too much.

When I got home, I went grocery shopping. I cooked chicken couscous for dinner for me and Monika. She’s home! We had a lovely conversation over dinner. It was really nice. I’m glad I’m not alone in the apartment any more. And she’s not going away this coming weekend because of “fete de lumieres”. I’ll tell you about that later. As for now, I’m done blogging, so I’m going to watch my movie now. Tomorrow I’m not working, but I need to plan what I’m doing at Bible Study since I’m leading it. I know what I’m talking about, I just need to find relative scripture.

Bonne nuit!
Oh, and y’all, pray for my kids. These students need your prayer. They need people to support them (and your prayers will do just that). The suburb they live in isn’t the best in the world, and a lot of them come from really troubled, broken, families. And also pray for me, that I can seek to patient with them for as long as their unacceptable behavior continues and that I won’t give up on them. They don’t need that in their lives. They need support and encouragement, and I know I have that in me!

Marché de Noel de Lyon (Lyon’s Christmas Market)

Today I actually did a lot, but each thing took numerous hours, so I’m going to quickly bullet them since there’s not that many.

- CHURCH. Church this morning was great. We talked about the first Sunday of advent and what that means. I read scripture again this morning, and got complimented on my American accent afterwards. Downstairs, after the service the bake sale was going on. I bough 5 euros worth of stuff: gingerbread cookies and chocolate chip cookies. P.S. Chocolate chips don’t exist in France. (Ok, they do, but they’re ridiculously expensive.)

-CHRISTMAS CAROL CHOIR PRACTICE. After church we had choir practice. I’m not really in the choir, but they put a thing in the bulletin a few weeks back asking for people to help out in December with the Christmas carols. Anne, Esther, and I stayed after and added to our musical talents. It’s kind of funny though because we really did add something: a new voice in each section. Esther is an alto, Anne is a second soprano, and I’m a first soprano. Needless to say we had a really fun time. Anne and I especially so because a lot of the carols were the American versions and all the British ladies had to look and us and listen because we knew the real tune.

- LUNCH. Anne came over for lunch after church. She and I had made plans to meet people at 4 and not wanting her to trek all the home to her suburb, just to get there and turn around and come back, I just had her over for lunch. We ate Thanksgiving leftovers/pasta for Anne (because she’s a vegeterian).

MARCHE DE NOEL DE LYON. The Christmas market opened on Thursday (Thanksgiving) and will be up until Christmas Eve. The market is rather big and vendors sell all sorts of Christmas trinkets. Apparently every town in France has their own market. If you get a Christmas present from me chances are, I will have purchased it at this market! It’s kind of cool – I wish the US did big markets like this. Click here to go to the website! So Anne and I stayed for at least an hour wondering around. We didn’t buy anything besides Hot Spiced Wine. It was delicious, but very spicy. When the rain began, we headed home.

When I got home, I had dinner, prepped for my lessons this week, and talked to my best guy friend, Dustin, online for hours. While talking to him online, two American movies were shown on TV. I watched an itty bitty bit of “Papa, j’ai une maman pour toi” (Dad, I have mum for you = aka “It Takes Two”.) Yes, I am referring to Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s movie from over 15 years ago. It was on French TV! And then “The Devil Wore Prada” came on. But at least that’s a modern movie.

Tea time

So today I didn’t do too much, yet at the same time, I was busy. Highlights of today were:

- getting up early because the mailman knocked on the door and woke me up with a package for Monika.
- ate breakfast and watched a movie in french (la grande seduction – it’s actually a french-canadian film). it was really cute.
- did three loads of laundry.
- had left over turkey and potatoes for lunch. so good!
- had a few girls over for tea this afternoon…it was my ploy to finish off the leftover pie from thursday night.
- we all headed to bellecour after tea to recharge our TCL (transportation) cards for december.
- went to SFR and tried to get anne’s phone plan changed. despite finding the same boys that normally help us, due to liking we’re all american girls with accents, they couldn’t help us tonight. anne had a different phone (not an SFR phone).
- got asked for my number while at SFR. very funny story. lesley, anne, and i laughed for a while afterwards.
- went to dinner at “l’epicerie” and had tartines.
- went to the bank and withdrew this month’s rent.
- headed home and started a new french novel. so far so good.

well, that’s all. tomorrow’s church and then a christmas market! i’m excited. bonne nuit!