Jingle Bells

Hey y'all,

Had yesterday not been my final day of work and second to last day before I head home, I would've considered it the most ROTTEN day I've had since being here.

The metro was all messed up in the morning. I normally take one line and switch to another to get to school, but the first line was broken. So I had to walk 20 minutes out of my way in the pouring rain to catch the other line and take that directly to school. Why didn't I have my umbrella, you might ask? Well, I did in fact have my umbrella, but the wind was so uncontrollable that it almost broke that dang parapluie in half. So, I couldn't use it. Womp womp womp.

I finally made it to school, albeit 30 minutes late. I was horribly embarrassed but the teachers told me it wasn't a big deal at all. I mean, if the metro is my only way of getting to work (I don't have a bike nor do I have a car...), and if it's broken, there's really nothing I can do about it. Phew. One of the teachers described it was les joies du transport publique (the joys of public transportation.) Quelles joies.

Anyways, the kids were wild because it was the second to last day of school until break, but oh well.

At my second school in the afternoon, we had the Christmas performance, and it was really fun. Here's a video of one of my classes singing Jingle Bells and O Christmas Tree. Nailed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Q-gljhOcI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJA4E7x0CbI

And this one has nothing to do with Christmas. It's a song to help them learn the days of the week and foods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hUdC6FfjeE

fyi - they're saying, Monday string beans, tuesday spaghetti, Wednesday soup, Thursdays roast beef, Friday fresh fish, Saturday chicken, Sunday ice cream - It can be hard to tell at times...

Here's an older class singing a song about the days of the week. - It's supposed to be to the tune of the farmer in the dell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxxUYHVGC9g


Regardless, I'm heading home tomorrow. Holla.

Luv,
Sarah

Ferris wheels and gingerbread houses

Hey y'all,

So today was a good day. I got up and ran this morning and then babysat Duke for the afternoon. He didn't have too much homework so we played for most of the afternoon. His 8th birthday is Saturday and since I won't see him until January, I bought him some candy that I knew he liked. He loved it and thanked me profusely. He's a cool kid. When I left, I told him I'd see him in a few weeks and he said bye to me. I was at the gate, about to turn onto the street and I heard a knocking on glass. I turned around and he was still at the door knocking and waving at me. He's a REALLY cool kid.

This evening, Emily and I made the best decision of our time here in Lille and finally rode the ferris wheel. Let me tell y'all. It was 4 euros well worth it. It was actually a tad scary, as the cars we were in rocked back and forth a little, plus it moved really quickly, but it was still really cool. It was fun to be able to see all of Lille from up high. Here are a few shots.

Emily is a tad (VERY) scared of heights. But hey, the bell tower in the background looks cool.

Sorry for the blurry pictures.

Then, to add to the Christmas fun, Emily and I finally made the gingerbread house that my brother David and my sister-in-law Lindsey sent us. Emily had never made one before, so it was super fun. It definitely put us both in the holiday spirit! 

Tomorrow is my last day of work before break, so I'm super pumped about that. At one of my schools, they're having a Christmas party and some of my classes will be singing Christmas carols in English for everyone. I will for sure try to take videos on my phone. 

Then it's Friday.

Then it's HOME.

Luv,

Sarah 

Cadeau de Noël

Hey y'all,

So today I received my first Christmas gift as a teacher. Loved it. On Tuesdays I work at the preschool at one of my schools. I take groups of 4-6 students out of each class for about 10 minutes to work on things like colors and numbers. After I took my last group out, the teacher asked me to stop back by the classroom before I left, which freaked me out a bit. I was worried he was going to tell me I'd been doing something wrong, or that he didn't like what I was doing with the kids in general. But alas, he gave me this gift that apparently all the kids made. They were some type of shortbread cookies, and they actually weren't half bad!

Luv,
Sarah

Christmas Crafts

Hey y'all,

Today in one of my classes, we made Christmas trees and learned all the vocabulary of that. We made the trees by folding paper in half and then cutting out the trees. The teacher wanted me to give them directions only in English so they could work on their classroom type verbs. I think the kids really liked it, although it was a bit of a strug since I was only speaking in English.

Also. Fun fact. They only write in cursive over here. Pretty bizarre. The cursive writing on the right is from the teacher but I wrote the other words.

Luv,
Sarah

Joyeux Noël

Happy Holidays, y'all!

Luv,
Sarah

"One mo' time"

Hey y'all,

This is a video of the kid I babysit singing a Christmas song for me that he's learning at his English school (that he only goes to on Wednesdays). It was hilarious. He didn't want me to watch while he sang, so he hid under the table. Hilar. My favorite part is when he says "One mo' time!"

Emily and I made holiday cards for each other. We're very sentimental.

I've had a really good weekend. I did a little Christmas shopping - still have a couple more people I need to get stuff for, but I'll make it happen.

These guys were performing on the street when we were walking around. Loved it. They were hilarious. I normally don't stay and watch performers for too long, but we watched them for at least 20 minutes. Quality.

See y'all soon!

Luv,
Sarah

P.S. Watch this to restore your faith in humanity.

Christmas Carols

Hey y'all,

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what my $250,000 education from a top 25 university taught me to do. Make pretty posters. (and may or may not have gotten me this job. that's beside the point.)

Oh yeah. Quality. 

The kids loved it.

Today was a really long day, though. Not quite sure why, but I was exhausted. One of the janitors said, "Sarah, are you sick? You have burnt eyes." - Apparently this means that my eyes looked dry and red. Odd. No sickness for me, just tired. 

Despite being a long day, it was a really good day. So much Christmas cheer going around, and it makes me so excited to be heading home so soon.

Last day of work in 9 days. Home in 11 days. Christmas in 14 days. Visiting my little sister in NYC in 19 days. HOLLA. So many good things coming up. Can't wait to be back in the Motherland.

For dinner I had oatmeal, green beans, an egg, and a beer. That's right, folks. I'm 22 years old, and I do what I want. 

Tomorrow we're having the two girls from downstairs over to our apartment for dinner. We've been meaning to do this for a good two months, but we just kept putting it off. They're actually moving out on Saturday because they got accepted to study abroad programs in Canada and Poland. Interesting. We don't know who is going to take their place. Unfortunately, it probably won't be two cute French boys, because our landlady is a vieille dame who is very anti-fraternization. Womp womp womp.

See y'all soon.

Luv,

Sarah 

Weihnachtsmärkte

Hey y'all,

Yesterday was a really fun day. Emily and I took a day trip to Cologne, Germany to go to the Weihnachtsmärkte, the Christmas market. It was a bus trip from Lille and took about 4 hours to get there. We left from the end of one of the metro lines at 6:30. Oof. We got up at 5am in order to get there on time and didn't make it back to our apartment until right at midnight. A verrrry long day.

Cologne was freezing. The high was 28 and I don't think my toes got warm the whole day. There was snow and slush everywhere. I like a little bit of snow for a little while, but I can't handle a whole lot of snow.

Here are some pictures from our visit.

Cologne is known for the enormous cathedral, which if I remember correctly, has the biggest facade in the world.

There were 4 different markets in the city, but the coolest one was right next to the cathedral.

We arrived around 10:30am, and Emily and I immediately made our way to the gluhwein (hot wine.) It tasted a lot like apple cider, but with a little extra kick. Plus, we got precious souvenir cups. Worth it.

So much happiness. 

We strolled through the PACKED markets, which was annoying, but pretty fun. They were selling all sorts of cool things. Christmas decorations to food (slurp) to leather to clothes. The downside of the trip had to be the number of people there. Oh, and the 28 degree weather. That was slightly miserable. I just  now had to look down to make sure I still had my toes. It was questionable yesterday. 

I'm actually not sure what this is, but it looked delicious. Emily and I got desserts and I tried something with a really funky name. It was something along the lines of bread with sugar, butter, and nuts. aka heaven. 

There's a Starbucks in Cologne, so we obvi went. Every single time that I start to think that oh hey maybe the United States isn't the best country in the world, I'm shot back to reality when I walk into a Starbucks. 'Merica.

Here are a few pictures of the cathedral at night. 

Come on. Y'all know good and well that I wasn't going to go to Germany without having beer. 

Pretty lights at night in the market

Here's a statue of Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia

Market next to the cathedral

Street in Cologne

Snow. Ugh.

Anyways, I think I'm teaching Christmas carols this week in class. Couldn't be more excited.

Luv,

Sarah 

Dunkerque

Hey y'all,

So today, like every Wednesday, I have the day off, but haaaaaave mercy, I also had the afternoon off from babysitting! Woopwoop. So Emily and I decided to take a trip up to Dunkirk, just to check it out. It cost about 14 euro round trip, so it was a no brainer. And it's only a little over an hour away. So easy. As a closet history nerd, I was super excited to go and see the city known for the evacuation of the Allied soldiers during WWII, aka the miracle of dunkirk. Unfortunately, the war museum is closed during the winter, so we  didn't get to see that.

We left about noon and showed up in Dunkirk...to rain. A recurring theme in my life. PLUS, it was even colder than in Lille, so in the low low 30s. Oof.

Highlights of the trip included a trip up the bell tower of Dunkirk. Well worth the 3 euros.

Yep, that's the ocean. 

There really isn't too much to do in Dunkirk, but we walked along some of the canals/ports, and took some pretty pictures. 

And I took my first jumping picture for this France trip. I'm embarrassed it took me so long, but I believe I might have just unlocked pandora's box. again. oops. Or more so, sorry I'm not sorry. 

Also, not a big deal, but I might have contracted hypothermia today. I for sure need to get a bigger coat.

See y'all soon!

Luv,

Sarah 

3 weeks

Hey y'all,

So three weeks from today, I will be getting on a plane and heading home for Christmas break. I could not be more excited. It's going to be so nice to be home. I think one of the reasons that I'm so excited to go is that I get to come back to Lille afterwards. I remember when I studied in Paris a couple years ago, I was excited to go home, but I was sad to leave. Now I have the best of both worlds. I get to go spend time at home, soaking up all of the amazing comforts that America has to offer, but then I get to come back here, where life will be waiting for me. Another reason I'm excited to go home - earlier this week I booked my flight to go spend New Year's in New York City with my little sister (and best friend) in Phi Mu! Brittany lives in Connecticut, not too far from the city, so I absolutely cannot wait for that.

Since I haven't updated y'all in about a week, bare with me as I have a bunch of small updates and tidbits.

This was in the French metro newspaper earlier this week. I didn't know they were that attached to Jr.

Loved it. "Son éternel stetson"

I told Emily that my dad had a stetson. She thought it was pretty cool.

Raise up.

I got made fun of for being a vegetarian the other night. When I told someone I was American, for some reason they asked if I ate foie gras. When I said no, they asked me why, and I said I was vegetarian. They thought I was joking. "An American who's a vegetarian? You mean you don't eat huge hamburgers?" Nope. Made me laugh.

I have a mildly hilarious story for y'all.

On Thursday, I wore a really cute green shirt with a bow on the front. After recess, I put my jacket back on, went into class, was standing in front of class, tried to unzip my jacket and realized I had zipped my jacket up over the bow. So I stood up and taught for 30 min with my army jacket on, all the while casually trying to get that darn bow out of the zipper. Zero success. I'm fairly positive I looked like an idiot, but it's ok - I play it off well. So on my way to the next class, I stopped by the teachers lounge where the three janitors were sitting drinking coffee. They're these 3 60-yr old women, so I asked them for help and it took all three of them to get the bow out of my zipper. We tried numerous methods. One tried to pry it off with a knife (that was actually mildly terrifying). She jokingly said "oh I hope I don't stab you and get sent to jail." I didn't laugh. Eventually, we had to cut the bow with a knife, and then lift the jacket over my shoulders. I had to lift up my arms like a little kid as two of them pulled it off, and the other held my shirt down. Needless to say, the bow on the shirt is pretty ruined. but alas, they were able to help me get my jacket off. They said that now I can go back to America and say I was undressed by three French women. Oh the hilarity. While it was an extremely embarrassing ten minutes, I'm so glad they were nice and helped me out. 

The holiday season is in full swing on Rue Alexandre Leleux, mainly thanks to a care package from my mom that included Christmas decorations. Deb sends the best packages. 

Mom even sent a santa for me from home!

(with specific instructions to bring it back)

We put these up over our kitchen sink

Also! Since it's December 1, I was able to start the advent calendar that I bought a few weeks ago. Love it. 

Don't get overexcited. It cost 80 centimes. But still, I like it.

This little piece of chocolate was in it today.

Anyways, I have no plans on tap for today. I might walk around and try to find a Christmas tree. Excuse me, a CHEAP Christmas tree. The cheapest I've seen is 25 euro, and I just don't feel like spending that much money. I'm hoping to find a baby one somewhere. Will obvi keep y'all posted.

Luv,

Sarah