Tuesday 2/21-Friday 2/24

On Tuesday afternoon (2/21), we got on a train headed down to Tyrosse, but we didn't arrive until almost 11pm. So we spent Wednesday hanging out with my host family, taking Dunja for a walk, playing basketball and cards with Margot, etc. I spent a bit of time trying to get my hard drive fixed, but no success. :(

Photo: Dunja and her new best friend

Early Thursday morning (2/23), Mark and I took the train to San Sebastian in Spain. We were lucky to have beautiful weather (a little bit chilly, but very sunny and blue skies) and, after dumping our stuff at the hostel, we wandered around the city and then hiked up this big hill that has a statue of Jesus on top.

Photo: The beach in San Sebastian

It was a beautiful walk and the views from the top were stunning!

Photo: A view of the city

Photo: Photoshoot during the hike

Photo: We made it all the way up to Jesus!

We were lucky to have a kitchen at the hostel, so we cooked all our meals (the restaurants are pretty expensive there and most of the food is meat!).

The next morning we picnicked for breakfast, sitting on a big wall at the edge of the beach. It was so warm! If we hadn't been leaving that day, I would have been very tempted to go swimming!

Photo: Picnic breakfast!

Photo: Mark enjoying the sun in San Sebastian

Friday 2/17-Monday 2/20: Catching Up...

Well...it has been a while. I haven't been posting because, well, my hard drive went on strike and (after much confusion and a few visits to the Mac store in Paris) I ended up buying a new hard drive! Hopefully I'll be able to get all of my info off the old one when I get home. In any case, there's my excuse!

I don't think there's any way that I'd be able to catch up for all the days that I missed, so I'm not even going to try! I'll just give a little summary of what happened during the vacation and during my first week back to school.

On Friday night (2/17), I took the overnight train up to Paris so I could meet Mark at the airport when he arrived the next morning. We spent three nights in Paris, staying in a cheap hotel near the Gare de l'Est.

Photo: Sacré Coeur

During the days we spent a lot of time walking around, just wandering.

We headed up to Sacré Coeur (the beautiful, white cathedral on the hill), spent quite a bit of time around the Opéra Garnier, saw the outside of the Louvre, stopped by the Moulin Rouge, and made sure to have a little visit to the La Tour Eiffel.

Photo: Near the Opéra Garnier

Photo: By the Louvre museum

Photo: Outside of the Moulin Rouge

Photo: La Tour Eiffel!!!

We managed to find a movie theater that was showing the new Sherlock Holmes movie in English with French subtitles, so we ended up seeing it on Sunday night!

On Monday (2/20), we met up with our friend, Marina, who was an exchange student from Germany at WOU last year. She's living in France for a few months, working as a nanny for a family that lives about an hour out of Paris! We all toured Notre Dame Cathedral and then went out to lunch at a little Italian restaurant.

Photo: Outside of Notre Dame

That evening, Mark and I got dressed up and went to see the newest French musical that was showing at the Palais des Sports in Paris. It was rather like a rock concert and the costumes were spectacular. It really reminded me of HAIR, actually! We both enjoyed it and ended up in the crowd up at the stage during the long finale!

Photo: Outside the theatre

Wednesday 2/15: Curry!

I was woken up around 9:30am by someone ringing the doorbell and Dunja barking like crazy. I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to sign for a package that was being delivered. I think I was still somewhat asleep! Then I headed back to bed and slept for 2 more hours! I slipped downstairs to have breakfast and Alison didn’t wake up until a little past noon! We stayed up late last night and we were both (clearly) tired!

This afternoon we hung out and I finally received the pen pal letters from the second school that was supposed to send them back in Jan! Unfortunately now we won’t have enough time to write back before the Feb break. Oh well, that’s life! But Alison and I had fun reading all the letters. It’s hilarious how the kids write and what they choose to write about!

Later this afternoon I made curry and naan while Alison showed me songs on youtube. She was picked up by Emmanuelle because Alison is now tutoring Emmanuelle’s daughter! It’s nice because they both live in Capbreton.

This evening I went to the gym again with Catherine. We had a good chat with a woman there who told us she had hosted two American students a long time ago and had really enjoyed it.

When we got home, we had an Indian dinner!! It was really funny, though, because they were all really confused how we could possibly be eating curry (that contained potatoes), rice, AND naan! Too many carbs! In my opinion it’s no worse than having just a big bowl full of pasta with cheese sauce for dinner! It’s just that we were eating three different kinds of carbs instead of just a lot of pasta! I really enjoyed the dinner, but I think they weren’t so keen on having the rice AND naan with the curry. Oh well!

Tomorrow is my last day of teaching until March 6^th!!

Tuesday 2/14: Happy Valentine’s Day!

In my classes today we sang “Skidamarink” (and with the younger kids we also re-sang “BINGO”) and just reviewed everything we’ve worked on lately.

At school today the teachers decided to have a strike on Friday to protest the huge cuts in the “RASED” program, which helps students with difficulties. The government is cutting a lot of the counselors and a lot of funding, which is going to make it very difficult for the students who need the extra help. So, all the teachers are going on strike and the school is closed on Friday (because there won’t be any teachers there to teach!). Which means—I only have one more day of teaching! Sweeeet!

Tonight we made crêpes in the conversation class! Mmmm! Everyone brought a filling (and someone brought the batter and an electric griddle) and we talked and ate. Alison was dropped off at my house right before the class, so she came too!

Photo: Two people are missing, but here's my conversation class!

Catherine was at her city council meeting tonight, so we had dinner without her. We were planning to watch the Tuesday night TV show (the foster family one), but apparently the “season” is finished. Whatever that means. So, no more of that until after I’m long gone from here! Go figure… I don’t understand TV shows. Finally I actually follow one and they get rid of it! Lame.

So, Alison and I watched a really long French historical drama called “La Princess de Montpensier.” It was ok. At least we learned something about the Catholic-Protestant wars that went on in France in the 16^th century!

Monday 2/13: Abs of Steel…

My early morning class went fine—uneventful. The afternoon classes at the other school consisted of making Valentine cards and eating cookies. We didn’t have much time, so we just rushed through it. Then I quickly biked home to teach the 9 year olds (I read them “The Three Billy-Goats”). It’s amazing how much easier it is to teach that class without the really disruptive boy! It was pretty challenging to read the book because it was one of those extra-large books meant for reading to a whole class...and they're kinda hard to hold and read at the same time. But, I managed. :p

This evening I went to the gym again with Catherine. Whew! We did over 400 sit-ups (different ways, but all working the abs), so I’m pretty tired now! It feels good, though, to have really worked out my abs!

Tonight I made Valentine cards for Catherine, Ralf, and Margot and then after they were all in bed, I snuck down and put them on the table with a chocolate for each. Catherine heard me sneaking back up the stairs, but she didn’t find out why I had come downstairs! Heehee!

Sunday 2/12: Feeling Good!

Another relaxing morning…oh, I love weekends! After chatting with Catherine looking for flights back to the US in May, and doing some lesson planning, I went to play basketball with Margot. It was only 31ºF, so our hands got pretty cold! After we’d played a game of 21 (Margot won) and a game of HORSE (I won), it got a bit warmer because the wind died down and it was sunny.

Photo: Margot goes for a lay-up!

Photo: Yes, I made the shot.

So, we scrimmaged a little bit one-on-one and then shot 3-pointers for a while. We’re training for when Mark gets here, but I don’t know if we’re going to be able to beat him…lately our shooting percentages haven’t been stellar. I blame it on the cold…

Photo: Happy!!

When we got home, we discovered a layer of ice on the pool! So, of course, we had to try snapping pieces off and throwing them so the ice would shatter everywhere!

Ralf and Catherine had friends over for tea, so Margot and I joined them and had tea and apple tart. Then Chantal arrived to go through the kids’ outgrown clothes so she could take them for her kids. It was incredible how many clothes there were! I wish I’d had cousins just a bit older than me to give me their outgrown clothes… It was like going to a store there were so many!

I spent the evening talking with people on skype (Mark and then Eric & Allie!!!) and then after dinner, I played scrabble with my mom online!

Only one more week of school until vacation and Mark’s visit!! :)

Saturday 2/11: I’m Going to Tanzania!!!!!!!

This morning I slept in and after breakfast I went back to bed to read… Catherine lent me the book “Hot Six” by Janet Evanovich (an author that’s been recommended many times), so I started it this morning. And I read half the book today!! It’s crazy, but I’m enjoying it! :)

It was really sunny today, but super cold! After deep-cleaning my room (which really needed it… I finally threw away all the Christmas wrapping paper I’d saved…), I decided to go on a run with Dunja. I wore leggings under my shorts, but just had a t-shirt on top….brrrr! It was only 33ºF, so it was pretty chilly! The run felt good, though, and I spent a lot of the time thinking about how it’s already the middle of February and I’m heading into the home stretch of this adventure. I realized that I haven’t felt homesick in a while! Not that I don’t miss home and everyone there, it’s just that it doesn’t ache like it did at the beginning. I think that part of it is that I know I only have 3 months left and then I won’t be seeing the people here, who I love so much! As I was running, I was looking around and thinking how much I enjoy living here and how I’m going to miss it. I know that I wouldn’t actually want to move here permanently (and I still think of Corvallis as home and where I want to settle down), but I am happy here for now.

I hung out with Catherine for a while this afternoon, just chatting and drinking tea. And then I went upstairs to do some research on plane tickets to go to Tanzania. I had looked at them before and every flight that left from Paris to Tz had a layover in Amsterdam. The issue was that either the layover was for 50 minutes (way too short) or for 12 hours (way too long)!! Frustrating! So, I tried going through London and I thought that would be a good idea, but then I found a ticket from Milan, Italy to Tanzania—ROUND TRIP—for $656.25! All the tickets I’d seen before were about $900-$1,200!! So, I decided to act quickly and buy the ticket before the price went up. So, (thanks to Maria, who fronted the money until I can transfer more into my US account…) I’m officially going to Tanzania from May 1^st to May 15^th! Yippee!!!!!