Hey y'all,
I'm going to preface this post by saying how many random things I will talk about.
For starters, this week has been a linguistic land mine for me.
1. Vous me cassez les pieds - I love being in France because I can learn all kinds of fun idioms (as well as vocabulary) that I wouldn't necessarily learn in a classroom. This literally means 'you are breaking my legs.' The figurative translation is 'you're bothering me/driving me crazy/being ridiculous.' The kids were a tad out of control in one of my classes with Sarah earlier this week and she said that over and over. Interesting.
2. I don't know if y'all are aware, but I adore using the acronym NBD ('no big deal' for those of you that are out of the loop.) I learned this week from one of my students that there's a similar acronym in French. C'est pas grave is essentially how you would say 'no big deal' in French, and the acronym that goes with that is CPG. I'm going to start using this all day everyday. Sorry I'm not sorry, France.
Reasons why I love France:
1. It's is almost 1pm here on Thursday and it's officially the weekend for me. I normally work at both schools on Thursdays, but the English teachers at my second school aren't working today because they're en grève (on strike) and are participating in a manifestation (protest.) So, I went to one of my schools this morning, but have the afternoon free because of that. Oh how wonderful.
2. In approximately two weeks, the French government will be rewarding me, as well as all other teachers and students, with two weeks of (paid) vacation. HOLLA. My parents are coming to visit me and we're going to get wild in Brussels, Lille, and then possibly Amsterdam! Cannot wait to have them over here. Plus, last night I booked tickets with Emily to go to Barcelona. Si! Si! Si! I've never been to Spain and I'm so excited.
Vive la France.
For one of my classes, I take out about 10 students and we play games to work on their English. Today, I had to send a kid out of my class because he wouldn't stop talking and wasn't paying attention at all. I told him 2-3 times to stop and he would for about 10 seconds and then just start it up again. Finally, I was just like, 'ok go back to class, NOW' (in French, obvi) - accompanied by my most serious Senter stare/glare (learned from the best.) He was not a happy camper, but honestly, if you're 10 years old, you should know how to behave in class. He was being such a little pain. If I had been thinking straight, I would've said "Tu me casses les pieds!" Oh well. Next time. Had to send him out, because honestly ain't nobody got time for that.
Happy Thursday.
Luv,
Sarah
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Weekend update
Hey y'all,
So this past weekend, Russell, one of my friends from Wake Forest who is studying in Paris, came to visit me. We had a blast. He and Emily got along really well, and we all just had a really great time together. We didn't do anything super touristy besides walk around a bit (not that there's ton of touristy things to do in little ol' Lille, but that's beside the point.)
Fun things that have happened lately.
1. The weather got above freezing and so within a day, all of the snow had melted. OUAIS. However, since the snow/ice is gone, the rain has recommenced. Womp. But oh well, I think I'd rather that than snow.
2. At the école maternelle where I work for an hour a week, today I was teaching the kids some food words. Only super easy ones (ones that are similar to the French words) - banana, apple, tomato, carrot, orange. The kids LOVED the word banana. They thought it was so fun to say. The French word is banane. Anyways, at the maternelle, I take out 5 groups of 6 for about 10 minutes each and one of my groups, as we were walking back to their class, they started chanting "banana". Oh man. Kids these days.
3. In one of my classes with kids that are 9ish years old, I had taken a group of about 10 out and we were playing Simon Says to work on their feelings - sad, happy, angry, scary, worried, etc. One of the students was being a pain and started doing the gangnam style dance. I don't want to brag, but I am really good at that dance. So when he started doing that, all I wanted to do was join in (and critique him because I'm not going to lie, he wasn't doing it that well). Alas. I had to be an adult, put on my serious David Senter face and tell him to stop. IF THAT'S NOT MATURITY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.
4. Emily and I booked tickets yesterday to go to a beer festival in Bruges, Belgium on Saturday. Oh goodness. Cannot wait.
5. I got a beautiful monogrammed purse for Christmas and wore it out to a bar the other night. I was talking to a Frenchie and he was all like 'oh that's a really pretty purse, what's the symbol on it?' I went on to explain what a monogram is. He responded in all seriousness, "So...does that mean you're a noble?" Apparently, in France, you wouldn't have anything monogrammed with your family letters unless you're a noble. Unfortunately I told him no, although that would've been a fun ruse. Oh well. Next time.
Luv,
Sarah
So this past weekend, Russell, one of my friends from Wake Forest who is studying in Paris, came to visit me. We had a blast. He and Emily got along really well, and we all just had a really great time together. We didn't do anything super touristy besides walk around a bit (not that there's ton of touristy things to do in little ol' Lille, but that's beside the point.)
Fun things that have happened lately.
1. The weather got above freezing and so within a day, all of the snow had melted. OUAIS. However, since the snow/ice is gone, the rain has recommenced. Womp. But oh well, I think I'd rather that than snow.
2. At the école maternelle where I work for an hour a week, today I was teaching the kids some food words. Only super easy ones (ones that are similar to the French words) - banana, apple, tomato, carrot, orange. The kids LOVED the word banana. They thought it was so fun to say. The French word is banane. Anyways, at the maternelle, I take out 5 groups of 6 for about 10 minutes each and one of my groups, as we were walking back to their class, they started chanting "banana". Oh man. Kids these days.
3. In one of my classes with kids that are 9ish years old, I had taken a group of about 10 out and we were playing Simon Says to work on their feelings - sad, happy, angry, scary, worried, etc. One of the students was being a pain and started doing the gangnam style dance. I don't want to brag, but I am really good at that dance. So when he started doing that, all I wanted to do was join in (and critique him because I'm not going to lie, he wasn't doing it that well). Alas. I had to be an adult, put on my serious David Senter face and tell him to stop. IF THAT'S NOT MATURITY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.
4. Emily and I booked tickets yesterday to go to a beer festival in Bruges, Belgium on Saturday. Oh goodness. Cannot wait.
5. I got a beautiful monogrammed purse for Christmas and wore it out to a bar the other night. I was talking to a Frenchie and he was all like 'oh that's a really pretty purse, what's the symbol on it?' I went on to explain what a monogram is. He responded in all seriousness, "So...does that mean you're a noble?" Apparently, in France, you wouldn't have anything monogrammed with your family letters unless you're a noble. Unfortunately I told him no, although that would've been a fun ruse. Oh well. Next time.
Luv,
Sarah
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Running in the snow
Hey y'all,
Thrilling stuff has been taking place here.
Just kidding. I've just started running again...in the snow. Here are a few pictures I took today and yesterday at the Parc de la Citadelle where I run. Fortunately it's only snowy and not icy. The temperature is a whole different issue though. So cold! Hopefully it'll let up next week.
All this being said, it's been great to start running again. The marathon isn't too far away, and for those of you that don't know, my big brother Stephen is coming over to run it with me and my dad. Way too cool.
Luv,
Sarah
Thrilling stuff has been taking place here.
Just kidding. I've just started running again...in the snow. Here are a few pictures I took today and yesterday at the Parc de la Citadelle where I run. Fortunately it's only snowy and not icy. The temperature is a whole different issue though. So cold! Hopefully it'll let up next week.
Luv,
Sarah
Monday, January 21, 2013
La neige
Hey y'all,
According to the locals, the weather here has been significantly worse than normal. Apparently it isn't supposed to snow this much here. Alas. It snowed about 3 inches last night, and the temperature barely got over freezing today, so it's still covering everything. Here's a shot of the street my school is on. Lots of snow. Fortunately, the metro has been running at it's normal speed/frequency, so I haven't been late to work or anything.
However, this has happened to me three times in the last 5 days. Go ahead. Laugh. (I'm talking to you, RUTH. I know you'll enjoy this).
Here's the temps for the rest of the week.
Once I saw that low of 3 degrees, I realized I had to get a bigger coat. My little army jacket just hasn't been cutting it. So I went and bought a really pretty long red peacoat. Oh yeah, no more shivering for this girl. The magical thing about it is that it was 50% off. Magical. In France, there are two periods where there are huge sales - mid summer and then in January. Apparently, stores aren't allowed to put anything on sale at other times of the year. It's all regulated by the government and it's only during these specific periods. Wowza. The BEST part about it is that the prices get lower as the sale period goes on. My jacket was originally only 30% off, but I guess by now it was dropped to 50%. Holla.
My good friend, Russell, who is getting his master's degree in Paris is coming to visit me this weekend. Cannot wait. Should be a blast.
All my grad school apps are in, so now I've just got to wait about a month and a half, cross my fingers, and start figuring out what I'm doing next summer. Ugh.
I've put it off long enough, and tomorrow I am going to try to run outside in the cold/snow. Godspeed.
Luv,
Sarah
According to the locals, the weather here has been significantly worse than normal. Apparently it isn't supposed to snow this much here. Alas. It snowed about 3 inches last night, and the temperature barely got over freezing today, so it's still covering everything. Here's a shot of the street my school is on. Lots of snow. Fortunately, the metro has been running at it's normal speed/frequency, so I haven't been late to work or anything.
However, this has happened to me three times in the last 5 days. Go ahead. Laugh. (I'm talking to you, RUTH. I know you'll enjoy this).
Once I saw that low of 3 degrees, I realized I had to get a bigger coat. My little army jacket just hasn't been cutting it. So I went and bought a really pretty long red peacoat. Oh yeah, no more shivering for this girl. The magical thing about it is that it was 50% off. Magical. In France, there are two periods where there are huge sales - mid summer and then in January. Apparently, stores aren't allowed to put anything on sale at other times of the year. It's all regulated by the government and it's only during these specific periods. Wowza. The BEST part about it is that the prices get lower as the sale period goes on. My jacket was originally only 30% off, but I guess by now it was dropped to 50%. Holla.
My good friend, Russell, who is getting his master's degree in Paris is coming to visit me this weekend. Cannot wait. Should be a blast.
All my grad school apps are in, so now I've just got to wait about a month and a half, cross my fingers, and start figuring out what I'm doing next summer. Ugh.
I've put it off long enough, and tomorrow I am going to try to run outside in the cold/snow. Godspeed.
Luv,
Sarah
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Quel retour en France
Hey y'all,
I had a rather fantastic Christmas break. It was great to be home, spend time with the fam, Deacon, and I got to see a good amount of my friends, which was so nice.
Here's one of my best friends snoozing on my bed. Loved it.
And here's me visiting another one of my best friends in NYC for New Years. SO much fun.
So, my trip back to France was much more uneventful than my trip back in September. Thank ya jesus. No real issues, except that I couldn't find a store in the airport that sold any type of sleep aid in less than a 20 packet. I only needed 2, not 20. Ain't nobody need that. So all in all, I slept for a good thirty minutes on the 9 hour plane ride to Brussels. Womp. I did get to watch Pitch Perfect two and a half times on the plane, so there's that.
I got back to Lille about 1:30pm, took a nap, bought some groceries and went to bed about 9pm. All was well until the next afternoon when I started feeling really sick. I spent the next 48 hours, with the exception of 3 hours when I had to run to school on Friday, in bed (plus throw in a fever and some vomiting. yum). No bueno. Not sure if it was a mild case of the flu or just some bug, but it was not fun. I had zero appetite, but man could I down some Canada Dry.
I think I'm pretty much back to normal today, although I'm sure the 23 degree weather this morning couldn't have helped things. Alas, I'm a tough cookie.
Luv,
Sarah
I had a rather fantastic Christmas break. It was great to be home, spend time with the fam, Deacon, and I got to see a good amount of my friends, which was so nice.
Here's one of my best friends snoozing on my bed. Loved it.
And here's me visiting another one of my best friends in NYC for New Years. SO much fun.
So, my trip back to France was much more uneventful than my trip back in September. Thank ya jesus. No real issues, except that I couldn't find a store in the airport that sold any type of sleep aid in less than a 20 packet. I only needed 2, not 20. Ain't nobody need that. So all in all, I slept for a good thirty minutes on the 9 hour plane ride to Brussels. Womp. I did get to watch Pitch Perfect two and a half times on the plane, so there's that.
I got back to Lille about 1:30pm, took a nap, bought some groceries and went to bed about 9pm. All was well until the next afternoon when I started feeling really sick. I spent the next 48 hours, with the exception of 3 hours when I had to run to school on Friday, in bed (plus throw in a fever and some vomiting. yum). No bueno. Not sure if it was a mild case of the flu or just some bug, but it was not fun. I had zero appetite, but man could I down some Canada Dry.
I think I'm pretty much back to normal today, although I'm sure the 23 degree weather this morning couldn't have helped things. Alas, I'm a tough cookie.
Luv,
Sarah
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)