Vacation, all I ever wanted

Hightlights of my holidays so far:

Watching ridiculous amounts of Gossip Girl

Running errands up the wazoo

Finalizing a very important decision that will mean a big change for this lady

Getting together my Halloween costume bits and pieces-just know that my costume involves a boa and a sparkly flower in my hair, details to follow later

Shopping for school supplies and magic pens!

Picking up my Tarte de Mes Jours!!!



And vacances aren't even over yet! I still have 4 more days plus a very exciting Halloweener party on Friday!

PS-Isn't that pic of the Go-Go's so deliciously 80s it hurts?

Long time, no blog!

Howdy partners. It's been a while, eh? I've just been busy, busy with work life and social life and didn't get around to blogging. But I am now, very thankfully, en vacances so I figured this was the occas to get my bloggin on. I do have some exciting plans to share with you, but I will wait a bit until it is 100% set in stone. In other news, here are a few random tidbits of news and happenings from the past two weeks:

-Taught ex-Roomie#1 how to say "to drink one's face off" aka se bourrer la gueule, hilarity ensued when she could not remember the order and said things like "I'm going to drink off your face." Ouch, that sounds painful.

-I was wearing my normal comfy French shoes(the shoes all French people wear that aren't sneakers/tennis shoes, but just shoes) and one of my kiddies in a Moyenne-Grande class remarked "my brother has the same shoes, Leah!"...this encouraged the rest of the class to tell me that their brothers, fathers and uncles had the same shoes as well. Just because they're brown doesn't mean they're boys shoes, geez!

-Went to an anglophone party in a bar on Thurs night...one drink free and 2 drinks half-off, this meant I paid 4 euros for a demi, vodka orange and a pinte. I think I will be going back, umm, every Thursday. Especially because besides the cheap booze, it was so random, I couldn't help but heart it. A bar after my own heart.

-And probably one of the best bits of news of them all...I got my little slip of paper saying I could go to the dreaded Trefecture and pick up my Tarte de Mes Jours!!! Yessssss, victory is (almost) mine!

PS-Can YOU guess where I'll be on December 6th?

Sans voix

Ok, this is going to probably be a lot of random ramblings aka a normal post from me...oh wait. So, I have officially lost my voice for the second consecutive October. And as we all know when something happens more than once, you can use the word usually. So, when I usually lose my voice(you know, every October and stuff), it really blows. Whisper-yelling just does not have the same effect on the chilluns when I'm trying to tell them to shut it. I seriously think it's because I go all summer being calm and not singing songs every 5 seconds and then the rentree comes and I jump back into being a source of enterntainment 5 days a week for approximately 5,000 hours. My voice just can't handle the strain and I lose it. I guess maybe the soiree from Friday night didn't help either...but, I know that's not the only reason. Since I've been back here for part trois of my life in France and I've been the main English teacher in my schools, I've also found my voice just gets worn out from time to time. I also feel like it's scratchier than it used to be, but that's probably just from all that lovely second hand smoke that has been poisoning my lungs since circa 2002.

Despite the whisper-yelling, being sans voix does have its' advantages. Par ex, I can get out of talking to people. Now, that might sound anti-social of me, but you're forgetting one thing, I am indeed anti-social. No, I'm clearly kidding...ish. But, there are some people that I just don't feel the need to waste my ever-so interesting conversations on. Oh, and that prof that was always closing the window that I had previously opened because I was 500 degrees from all the singing and bouge-ing actually opened the window for me today when she saw how overheated I was at trying to talk/sing despite my lack of voice. A lady after my own heart. Not for serious, but I definitely have grown to like her a lot more than I thought I originally would. It's funny because there was one teacher I was told to "be careful of" as she is a bit of a sheister and had taken one of the people who worked at NS before me "under her wing." Basically, she made her buy her groceries for class. She apparently looks down on teachers that don't have the official French teaching certification and comes off as really nice, but is secretly kind of evil. The funny part is that I confused two of the teachers' names and I was "being careful" of the wrong teacher for 3 or 4 weeks! Glad I cleared things up with a coworker! Their names are similar to be fair to me, I'm not a complete idiot afterall!

What else to update on? Well, the bilingual kiddies are still as adorable as ever. It's so weird for me to hear American kids in Rennes. It's such a shock to my ear and then it immediately reminds me of home and it turns into a comfort. Plus, how cool is it to be a truly bilingual child? I wish I had grown up speaking two different languages! My chilluns(if I have some) are definitely going to be bilingual, preferably in French. Maybe I'd better first get started working on a way to get those chilluns in the first place because I don't think the Immaculate Conception is going to happen to me any time soon. In other news, it's Yuri's bday this week. Yay! And I'm hosting her party at my apt. Double yay! And my roomies will be gone. Triple yay! To be honest, I've hesitated on having people over because my apt has kinda had the fun sucked right out of it since the new roomies moved in. No, that's not right, I shouldn't say that, what I meant to say is that my apt has DEFINITELY had the fun sucked right out of it since then. I do really miss my old roomies, it is true. Le sigh. Oh, and other funness is that my English friend, Jenni, is coming back to visit soon. She's been in Rennes as long as I have(aka when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) and was an assistant with me in 2004. She came back in 2006 and stayed until Aug 2008 when she went back to Engers to do her teacher training. I miss her tons and tons, so I'm wagging my tail in excitement at the thought of my lady back in town! On that note, I'd better be off to finish my lemon tea&honey and then straight to bed! Or, I'll be watching ANTM on youtube, you take your pick!!

Smarter than a first grader

So, as I am now on Week 6 of the rentree at New School and Week 3 at OS, I have been reminded of some extremely important things all thanks to my lovely students:

Farts are funny. Admit it, you know you want to laugh. Also, making farting noises is almost just as good.

People dropping things(namely me) is also hilarious, it is funny to see your teacher look like a fool.

Sometimes you have boogers, often times you cannot be arsed to do anything about it.

When your teacher says the letter 'p', don't hesitate to repeat the word pipi over and over again. It is honestly one of the funniest things ever. Don't forget about "zee", what word would be funny to formulate using that letter? Oh, and don't you love how 'q' sounds like cul?? I know I do!

Also, tiger sounds like ta gueule and six sounds like...I'll leave you to figure that one out. It might be a toughie!

Yes, kids will be kids anywhere you go. I actually do have a bit of a difficult group in one of my first grade classes. They kind of donnent me envie to m'arracher les cheveux. I finally (along with their prof) had to lay down the law with them and make them realize that I mean business. They showed up the next class with drawings asking for my forgiveness for their rude and boisterous behavior. Whilst this was appreciated, I would just like you to NB some of the things they wrote...

pardon lia pour n'avoir pas ete sage

je m'aiscuse pour avoir rigole

lille morise(l'ile maurice)

...and that, mes amis, is why I'm smarter than a first grader!

A Tarte de MesJours Haiku

Good surprise arrives

Wait of four hours, babies cry

Leave with blue in hand

Did you really think I could write just three lines? Of course not! So, I am happy to announce success is mine, mes amis! I was waiting for something in the mail which I luckily got this afternoon(after going back to give them a prioritaire SASE to replace the economique one I had given without thinking) and I rushed off to the dreaded Trefecture throwing all my official docs in my bag and leaving my wet laundry I had just taken out of the washer behind. On a whim, I grabbed the yearbook portraits I (for some reason unbeknownst to me) got from New School when I took my picture for my teacher card just in case my mugg shot-like photomaton pics didn't cut it. I got to the Tref at about 11:45 and my stomach did somersaults and had butterflies because I wasn't called until 16h(when it closes.) I luckily landed on the same lady who gave me my changement de statut carte last year who actually is capable of smiling and I showed her the list her coworker had given me 2 weeks prior of everything I needed and she seemed to think I had everything. She did take a second look at my mugg shot pics and said she didn't know if they would be ok for my actual carte because the top of my head was a tiny bit cut off. I handed over my yearbook pics and she said those would definitely be ok. Phew! I even made a joke about how I was better off with the yearbook ones anyways because the other ones were pas non plus tres jolies. She actually laughed and joked back which makes me think she might be human and not, in fact, a robot like the rest of them. I think the nice people at the Tref are starting to outnumber the meanies which makes me happy. Adios, droids! So, all that to say I have a brandy-new recepisse in my mains and all is bon for now!