Mouse = Mousse au Chocolat

Oh my goodness.
I collected my CE2's (3rd grade) English Notebooks to correct over the weekend. They love this because when I give them a grade, I also put a cool little sticker with the word in English. (There is something with kids and stickers that I don't completely understand). Anyways, I was half way through when I came to Enzo's. Enzo asks a ton of questions, is never sitting correctly in his chair, and draws well.

Apparently, he is also hilarious. On a worksheet that we did on "Pets"- under the picture of the mouse he wrote - "Mousse au chocolat"- which of course means Chocolate Mousse.

I love the fact that this kid is so French that he hears the word mouse and instantly thinks of this dessert so much to the point that he writes it down instead.

Random Facts #4

1. I am in a phase right now where I want to put honey on everything.
2. There is a cobbler in town and he is a JERK. First time I went in with a pair of boots for him to resole- he responded with "La Poubelle!!" (Garbage can). I was OFFENDED. Now, he has another pair of my boots (he is the only one in walking distance!) and it's going to cost me 40 euro when I pick them up... Jerk. Jerk. Jerk.
3. I was very productive today in my classes and I was also very funny! I don't know what it was but I was- on. point.
4. I showed a picture of one of my cats in class today and said that her name was Bojangles and someone said they didn't like her name. Ummm. So very not cool but I let it go.
5. (Totally unrelated to France but completely relevant to my love of hollywood)-- Does anyone else realize how many famous people are pregnant right now? GGEEZ. Alicia Silverstone, Selma Blair, Kate Hudson, Mariah Carey, Natalie Portman, Victoria Beckham, Ivanka Trump, Jewel, Marion Cotillard, Rachel Zoe & Pink.

Dub Station

This past weekend I ventured south (slightly) to Crépy-en-Valois, Cecilia's town!
I finished up with the kiddies at 4:15 on Friday, packed my bags, and got on a train. At the station, I saw Mélanie, who works downstairs in my building. So, instead of reading my book, we chatted away in French. Although this was much less relaxing than my book, it was great because she is very cool.

I got to Crépy at about 8ish and Cess met me. We made some raviolis and talked about a billion different things going on in our bizarre bubbles in Northern France.
We stayed up talking like we always do, which was grand. The next day, I got up earlier than her and drank the most delicious coffee with some soy milk in it.
That reminds me that I think I want to buy some soy milk. Why is it so good?
...
Saturday during the day, we just hung out because it was gross outside. At one point, I chatted with Pierre Yves, a man living in Cecilia's building who also teaches English. What a gentleman but what a talker. Wow. He was asking what we did the night before and I said talked and he said about what and I said France and Europe and where we want to see still. Then before I knew it he was getting into all the details of some French poet who has a "warm" voice.

Well, the juicy part of my weekend was Saturday night.
I saw a completely different Paris. It consisted of electronic reggae music, dreadlocks, and a big venue called "Trabendo" in the 19th arrondisement.

It's called "Dub Station" and it is an all night reggae dance party that happens once a month.
So, yes. We danced a ton, which I love. The bass was unreal and I came to the conclusion that it was impossible to think of anything else in the world because the music was taking up every inch of your brain.
I met Cecilia's French friends who were all cool and we had a blast.

Plus, I wore my favorite dress!
Even though it probably should have been thrown away years ago, it's great.

Random Facts #3

1. My nearby supermarket doesn't sell skim milk, so I have begrudgingly & temporarily switched to 2%.
2. I sing karaoke on Wii with Emma, who I speak English with/ babysit on Wednesdays. She does French songs and I do English ones. Today I got a good score with Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" but my favorite is "Jai Ho" by the Pussycat Dolls.
3. The big sales started in France last Wednesday and I got a beautiful gray scarf and a comfy purple sweater, each for 5 euro.
4. My best friend Erin's little sister, Anna, just turned 8. It BLOWS my mind, because I remember when she was in the little baby basket when we were in high school. I also miss having handstand contests with her in the living room.
5. I am going to a night of reggae in Paris called Dub Station this weekend with Cecilia and her French friends who I have yet to meet. :o)
6. I am almost always disappointed by the avocados here but I continue to buy them??
7. I can have the absolute best lighting in my room whenever I want. It is the blind down, a small orange desk lamp, and a lit vanilla candle.

Dear France,

Ok. so.

I just really gotta get a few things off of my chest here. I've been here for almost four months and I'm getting just a little homesick for my America.
I love you. I do. I am nearly obsessed with speaking your language and getting better all the time. I like my students here. I like your food, your history, etc.

But there are things I could do without.

- The "bise" cheek kiss that everyone does. It's pretty cute and different, yeah- but seriously for an American it is not comfortable. I don't ever actually kiss kiss the cheek- am i supposed to? I don't know. I just go in that direction and make the noise of a kiss and hope for the best.

- Saying hello to strangers. Sometimes, I just want to cruise through the day and just kind of fly under the radar. Sometimes, I just want to say hi to the people that I actually know- is that so ridiculous?

- Having it be an absolute obscene problem when you pay for something with a fifty. It is the definite end of the world. The cashiers love to ask if you "don't at all" have any change. It's like- no. Otherwise, I would of used that. Geezzz.

- The fact that people can hardly believe that it is possible to be American and speak something other than English and even more so, why one of those people would live in Beauvais. I WAS PUT HERE and YES I KNOW THAT PARIS IS BETTER. I've been. Actually, I lived there for 6 months. Thanks.

- I'm not even going to start on the fact that I have yet to receive my official social security card from you even though I got here in September or that when I want to cancel my cellphone contract that I have to WRITE a letter to an address. Oh sure, let me get out my quill pen and ink well.

That is all my ranting.
France, I'm sorry. You know I love you.

Practicing the Numbers

I forgot to mention this.

The other day in one of my classes, I was going around and checking up on their work. I came to one little girl and she looked at me. She then proceeded to practice her English numbers.



...


She counted how many ear piercings I have.

The answer was 7.

Then I pointed to my nose and she said Oh!, 8.

"It's Grandfather!"

I just got back from having 3 classes this morning. We started "The Family" this week. I made some pretty funny (and actually kind of good) flashcards with pictures of sister, brother, mother, father, grandmother & grandfather.

With my 8 year olds, we started off with the standard flashcard drill and then we played a memory game, which they LOVE. We say "Close your eyes" and then "Open your eyes" and then "What is missing!?!?".

At the end of that there was a little more than 5 minutes left. I whipped out a book to read but they all quickly shouted out that we had already read it. CRAP, I thought. So, I came up with a little game on the spot.

I wrote "Who is it?" on the board and then "It's...". I picked on someone to help me show what we were going to do. First I told the student to knock on the blackboard. Then I said "Hello!" And they say it back. Then I say "Who is it!?" and they respond with "It's..." and whatever person I gave them. It started out normal. Then, I picked up the Grandfather flashcard and said... "Ok, who can be the Grandfather?" Almost everyone raised their hand. But, then I did a classic Grandpa voice (kind of crackly and really slow) and I said "But, actually- the Grandfather talkssss likKkkee Thiiiiis because he is vvveeerryy olllLLLlllld". They all laughed so hard and there was one daring student in the back who kept his hand up. He is pretty outgoing and I knew he would go for it.

He gets up and goes ALL OUT. It was the best thing and we were all cracking up with him afterwards. Even the teacher, who is usually very serious, was smiling and giggling.

It was fantastic.

Random Facts #2

1. My mom sent me a package the other day that included some of my favorite pretzels from home.

2. Sometimes the directrice at one of my schools calls me "Anna" and I don't correct her.
3. My good friend, Bessie, from home is coming today for a few days!!!!
4. Sometimes I go to McDonalds for the free wifi and sometimes I sit there for 3 hours and sometimes the people that work there look at me weird.
5. I am a baguette snob.
6. I wrote "How are you?" on the board yesterday and asked what it meant and someone responded, "bon anniversaire", and another responded "il y a du soleil" - in English, "Happy Birthday" and "It's sunny".
7. The Bachelor just started a new season and that makes me very happy.
8. People here stare at me when I wear rain boots.

Back.

Germany & Austria are two REALLY cool places that I think everyone should visit.

With that said, let me tell you a little about my trip.

A couple of Saturdays ago, Cecilia and I stayed the night in Paris because we had an early flight the next day. At our hostel, we met a mom and a daughter from Mongolia who hadn't seen each other in 4 years who were touring the city together. They were adorable.
The next day we went to the airport. Super excited because although it was snowing, the internet said the flight was still on. Well, it was delayed two hours and right after I asked the nice man when we were leaving and he responded by saying "5 minutes" -- it was cancelled. We were told there were no flights to Berlin until the day before Christmas, so we freaked out and bought absurdly expensive train tickets to get there. Well, luckily we met this wonderful blonde lady who got us on standby for a night flight. Cecilia and I were cranky at the airport all day but it wasn't so bad because we met Chao and Viorela. Chao is from China and Viorela is from Romania and they are a couple who live in Paris and also were dealing with plane probs. They are awesome and us 4 are going to hang out soon! Yay!

SO, Berlin. berlin berlin berlin. I loved Berlin. We had 4 days there. We went to the incredible German History Museum and learned a TON, frequented several Christmas Markets (REAL snow on top of little wooden cottages selling handmade crafts and delicious snacks), went to an awesome Beer Hall called PraterGarten, visited the huge Jewish Memorial, discovered some cozy bars, saw the berlin wall & old Gestapo headquarters & shopped. Two things about Berlin. First-- we did an alternative art tour with a guy from New Zealand named Ben. It was the best thing. We saw a bunch of amazing street art and a few really eccentric artist studio buildings like Tacheles, which used to be a department store.

This was a building that was used to hide Jewish People during World War Two that was turned into a piece of art and a historical site. Awesome, right?

Second-- one night, we found a bar in the Christmas Market called "Partyhaus vom Nikolas" , meaning St. Nicholas. It was me, Cecilia, big mugs of beer, German songs, and plenty of singing Germans. It was a ball.

Sidenote: We had a hilarious Russian roommate named something crazy who smelt kind of bad. He had a good heart but he was weird. He told Cecilia he wanted to ask me out and he didn't know I was in the room. I was just behind the door and when I came out into the open he did it. I said no.

Then we headed to Munich. Munich was beautiful. Lauren met me and Cecilia there. We had a pretty chill time because we got there on December 23rd and left on December 27th- so a lot was closed. BUT, we were in a super fun hostel and we met a bunch of Americans. In Munich, we ate (twice!) at the famous beer hall called Hofbräuhaus, shopped at Viktualien Market, hung out in coffee shops, learned at the Munich City Museum, & checked out the Neue Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne- 2 decent art museums.

As big as our heads!


We celebrated Christmas together and exchanged gifts which was fun. We also went to the Dachau concentration camp, which was shocking. We spent a few hours walking around the grounds and in the museum- which BLEW my mind.

On December 27th, Cecilia and I hopped a train to Salzburg, Austria- which is a stunning city! There we did tons of exploring and walking around, saw where Mozart lived and his first piano (which I thought was SUPER cool), & shopped. I bought a fantastic, enormous pomegranate at a pretty market. Also, we ended up meeting two cool Austrian guys because the first night, we wanted to watch the Sound of Music at our hostel. Well, it wasn't working in English. So, Herwig gave us a free drink at the bar. Then his friend Klemens was there and we all chatted. They asked us what we were doing the next night and we said nothing so we made plans to go to a big beer hall called Augustiner Bräu. It was a fun time and periodically we would ask them to say a word in German and we were just like, WHHHHHATT- because the language is pretty crazy to hear.
P.S.- in Salzburg, we got our pictures taken in period clothes like they do at Disney World. It was hilarious. The picture is on my wall in my room.
I repeat- it was hilarious.

The last stop was Vienna.
Vienna was quite cool.
It consisted of Sacher Torte (the chocolate cake that is famous), Tram rides around the old city, good coffee, a BALLET at the opera house (which was superb), Naschmarkt, and the Belvedere Museum. This museum is one of my favorites now! They have a good amount of Gustav Klimt art- including THE KISS, which is one of my personal favorites because I find it to be beautiful & romantic.

I really loved my life when I was at this museum.

On New Years Eve, we got a good sushi dinner together. After hanging around in the hostel to see if there was anyone cool who wanted to join us- we went to this club "Flex". We got there around 11:30 and it was kind of empty. I don't think I even noticed when it turned 12. It was bizarre. Well, two guys walked in and I went up to them and I said... "Hi, happy new year! We're american and alone and... do you want to be friends with us?" It was pretty absurd but it worked and we had a great night with our new friends! One of whom has a vineyard and casually makes Austrian wine.


So, there you have it people! Now, I'm back in Beauvais doing my English Teacher thing. I actually just made a pretty delicious chicken rice curry dish for dinner.