So yeah, some of you have noticed the stunning lack of bloggage. Sorry. I’ve actually been pretty sick. It sucks. I’ve been suffering from a complete lack of energy, and actually any sort of will to do anything. But I’m getting better. So here is a really long blog. Most of it was written before I was sick… and I promise more bloggage as I feel better.


When the weather doesn’t want to cooperate with me, it has a sick sense of humor. Sometimes it laughs in my face.

As a part of my teaching, I have the children keep notebooks with the things that they have learned. Last week, I collected them so I can look at them, and correct any mistakes the children have made. So one day I had two classes worth of notebooks in shopping bags. They weren’t light. And it decided to rain. Not only was it rainy, but it was also very windy.

Just imagine trying to figure out how to manage two shopping bags that combined probably weighed about 20 to 25 pounds, and an umbrella. My arms felt like they were going to fall off.

Of course on the days I don’t have to walk so far or don’t have a billion pounds of notebooks to carry, it is not rainy.

Like I said, sick sense of humor.

But it is cold. Under 10 degrees during the day. Which is 50 for you in America land. And in the mornings, it’s about 1 or 2. Yeah, nice.

The sunrise thing still trips me out too. Even with daylight savings time, the sun doesn’t rise until after 8:00. Imagine if the French didn’t believe in daylight savings time… It makes getting up and going in the mornings much harder. I’m used to sunlight.

Thanksgiving was cool. MICEFA hosted a little get together for the American students. It was nice, they bought us a drink, and we brought snacks. Sylvana and I contributed Rice Krispie squares. And then afterwards, Michael, a student from Humboldt, had a get together at his place. It was nice, we had sliced turkey and cheese. Behold my Thanksgiving feast.

I’d just like to say that working hungover sucks.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, I went out with a group of people from California, most of them from up north. But one girl was from Upland. It’s strange how small this world really is.

We stayed out kind of late, and ended up walking home. The metros had opened, but we were going to have to wait 30 minutes for the first train. Or take a 20 minute walk. Some of the people I went out with live in the same area, so that worked out nice. We walked along the Seine. We were some of the only people around in the city.

Sylvana’s cousin was coming into Paris from Dublin for the weekend, so we went to meet up with him at a train station. We were talking about Ireland, and I really started getting jealous. I loved Ireland. And now we are all committed to the fact that we are going to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day. Yay! I am sooooooo excited.

Saturday night I went to a French party, hosted by Alex’s cousin, Merlin. Lots of French wine and desserts. Mmmmmm. And it was awesome, because I was holding actual conversations in French. While not sober. I really felt like I can cut it now. Ha.

On Sunday, Amanda and I decided to experiment with doing our hair ourselves. We actually only ended up having enough time to do her hair. I was quite scared. We both want to do highlights, so Amanda got a kit from Tati (a local store) that had a cap. She put it on, and we couldn’t get it to work. So we decided to give it a go with the foils. I had never done foils in anyone’s hair (and the only time I ever bleached my own hair had me in tears). I was really scared, but Amanda was gung-ho. I figured it was either going to turn out good, or Amanda was going to never want to talk to me again.

I was nervous all the way until she came out of the shower, and told me how happy she was with it. And it looked pretty good, if I do say so myself. I think I am going to try a different store to get a highlighting kit, maybe I will do it this week. Or just wait and pay for someone to do it. I am a little scared. We’ll see.

Afterwards we were going to get crepes, but that ended up not working out, and we went to an English Pub kind of near my area. It was nice, but I left early, I had to get back home and actually do a little homework, and get my lessons prepared for the week. Sometimes it really sucks being responsible.

And since we are on the subject of working, I love the efficiency of French companies. Over two weeks ago, I signed up for the internet at my apartment. I went to the store, got everything done, got the wireless modem, and they told me that I would have internet within the week. So I waited a week, and nothing. But it’s France, so I just went with it. But by the second week, I was really annoyed. So I went to the FranceTelecom store, and they said their computers showed my line was activated, so they told me I had to call customer service. That was fun. I waited on hold forever, and when I would talk to someone, they told me that I had to call a different number and talk with someone else. Finally after an hour and a half of this, I went to the guy who had helped me set up the account, and told him that I had been on hold, and the only thing I figured out was my account was blocked, and then ended up lost in their voicemail system. So he called someone else, and found out that there was a problem with the girl before me. A week later, I had internet.

And then I just got sick. It started slow, and then kicked my ass. I have gone to work, school, and slept. Last weekend, when it was really bad, Sylvana brought me soup like a good friend should. Luckily, she didn’t seem to catch what I had. Knock on wood.

More soon. I will try to be more interesting again.