I never blog well when I’m on a public computer. Not that my blog posts are usually well-crafted pieces of literature or anything.

Obviously the reason I’m in the mediatheque is that I’ve moved! The boy roommates helped me move Friday, though it was mostly Alexis because Julien threw his back out Friday afternoon. But he was very helpful when it came to passing the bed through the window instead of the tiny twisty staircase. It helps to have rockclimbing friends who know how to tie knots.

Anyway, I’ve been chilling at the new chez moi and hanging out with the new cool friends and trying to meet people. Everything’s awesome except that the girl above me seems to stomp around a lot. I think I’ll get used to it. I’m already used to the sun(lack of shutters) and the churchbells.

I’ve started reading Entre les murs which I saw last year in Houston with Anna. It’s pretty engrossing though a different experience from the movie. I’ve been reading back issues of the Language Educator which I haven’t read in months and watching old episodes of 30 rock and I even have a Foreign Language Annals to flip through at some point. And a student asked me for a letter of recommendation. The conference in Turkey wrote to me to ask if I’d be interested in doing an oral presentation instead of a poster so I said yes. I just have to grow some gonads because I think the thing makes more sense and will be more fun as a presentation. I also have this proposal to write for that conference in July and have to start thinking about how to turn my report into a paper. This is all easier to do when upstairs neighbor is sitting down (seriously am not sure she sits) or not there.

How is it already March?? It feels like yesterday I got back from the States after Christmas. Am listening to all the Indochine songs I was listening to just before Christmas, when I had just gone the long ridiculous route of getting Nicknameless Boy’s phone number and making contact.

In other news, I was told today that I was accepted to have my contract renewed by the university. Yay! Otherwise I would have been baisé-ed. Also I am quite happy to stay at this school for another year.

The roommates have gone out and it feels so wonderful to be alone. I wonder if that will change once I’ve lived alone for a while. I don’t think so though. I have so much work to get done (conference proposals, poster, start writing that freaking paper out of my thesis data already) that I’m looking forward to doing once I have no internet.

The crémaillère is looking to be the weekend of the 27th. One ex-student has confirmed that she could come then, Zandra might come, and it is apparently the only weekend in March-April that roommate Julien is not occupé.

Yesterday I spent all day doing stuff for the apartment. First I got my insurance (my conseillère bancaire was very nice as they always seem to be), then I went out to Chasseneuil du Poitou to order a couch. I ordered the one everyone liked. It was pretty comfy, and pretty small, but big enough for two people to sleep on every once in a while. I thought about getting a chauffeuse at the same time but they were all butt ugly. I thought about getting a pouf but then I realized if I get another chair-type thing I want it to be something that someone is actually comfortable sitting in. Then at 4 o’clock I met the landlords (and their granddaughters) and I got the keys and the contract! I went straight to Bouygues where they told me no one had used the line before me, so then I went to FT where it became clear that no one has had a phone line in that apartment since 2003. So it’s going to be re-opened next Tuesday morning. I think a few weeks without internet will do me good. I’ll read more, and listen to music more. I’m already trying to sort of load up on things to read. Plus I live practically next door to the médiathèque so besides Sunday and Monday I’ll have easy internet access there. Plus oh yeah, I have an iPhone.

I have new friends. They are a canadienne (T) and her French boyfriend (D) and I met them at the soirée polyglotte and they seem awesome. I had lunch with T yesterday and then that evening they took me to Géant Casino where I bought everything for my apartment. Everything except a cutting board, that is, which I only realized because T actually ended up cooking there. T and D were out of gas at their apartment so I said if they were up for eating on the floor they could cook at my new one since I had to drop the stuff off anyway. So we baptized the place by eating spaghetti on the floor.

I returned today at 5 to accept the delivery of my Troc furniture. So now there are four chairs, a small dining table, a coffee table, a nightstand, and lots of dishes in the place. I also called EDF today and got electricity sorted out.

Am hoping for a crémaillère the weekend of the 27th. Numerous people would need to come in from out of town though so am waiting for some confirmation that they could come.

I LOVE my new apartment! And I’m not even in it yet!

Am going to Conforama and But on Monday to look at couches and these are the ones I’ve found online:

from But

I can’t decide if it’s cute or ugly. I need a second opinion. What do you think?

from Conforama

Otherwise there’s this.

I’m getting the keys Monday! The landlady called this morning. I went to the bank this afternoon and they squeezed me in for an appointment Monday morning. Actually they more or less created an appointment for me when there were none. All branches of the Banque Populaire that I’ve ever worked with have been incredibly nice and helpful.

Alexis (roommate) is on board to help me move next Friday and I need to talk to Julien (roommate). I think I’m going to rent a camion since it looks like it’ll only be around 50 euros (hurrah for being 25, for once) and will save us all the aller-retours and figuring out how to mount the sommier on the top of someone’s car.

On another note, there is no edible cheese in the house. Sometimes I think my roommates are not actually French.

on using internet research in the foreign language classroom? Am thinking of whipping up something to submit for that conference about internet research using my Texas project and my current U.S. college project where the students are using the internet to decide on hypothetical schools to apply to and then write a college essay. Normal brainstorming buddy Anna is all the way in Houston!

Just a reminder

Am working on thinking up something to submit.

Vacation was awesome. Zandra met my awesome ex-students, we played lots of poker, we went into much too expensive stores near our rented apartment, we saw the Chinese New Year parade, and worlds in general collided in awesomeness. Unfortunately we did both get enrhumée which was a bit of a drag. In terms of tourism, we went back to the Orsay and the Pompidou with our prof cards that got us in free, and to the Gustave Moreau museum (not free but reduced) which was sort of interesting but not fantastic. But I wanted to see something new. I introduced Zandra to felafel in the Marais, where we met Shannon. Then Sunday I went down to spend two days with Nicknameless Boy, where he let me talk about teaching all I wanted. And now I’m back home. I’m hoping to get the keys to the new apartment early next week and then move next Friday. Fingers crossed the proprios come back from the Pyrenees in time to do that. In an ideal world the move would go this way:

Monday (or Saturday): 1) Sign contract, get copy of contract, keys, name of last renter 2) Call EDF 3) Go to Bouygues to order internet
Tuesday: Go to Troc to order furniture (small dining room table, coffee table, bedside table, chairs), buy household items (mop, broom, dish soap, dishes, pots & pans, bathmat)
Wednesday/Thursday pm: Have Troc furniture delivered
Friday afternoon/evening: Get roommate A and friends to help me move, then compensate them with aperos
Some day in the future: Order a couch, probably from 3suisses

Crossing fingers so hard I don’t have to wait any longer than that. My parents come the weekend after that one so it certainly won’t be happening then. I would like them to see the new place when they come.

Otherwise, I just posted 3 ads on the internet for cours particuliers. We’ll see ce que ça donne. Am going to try to start working hard on turning my masters report into a paper, and have started working on the poster for the Turkey conference, but I need to go to the copy place to find out what size poster they can print off. It is France, after all. You never know what kind of technology they have. Awesome 3-ring binders, bad computers (for instance mine at the school—which runs on WIndows 2000—wouldn’t turn on this morning).

I’d like to submit something to this but I don’t know what…

I’m so excited! It’s so cute! I took some crummy, dim pictures:

The little bedroom. (The owners asked me what I thought of the wallpaper and I said I thought it was cute, and since I don’t have any posters, they might as well not take it down. So it’s staying).

The séjour. That window looks out onto the rue pietonne and to the right you can see the Eglise Notre Dame (which is where the market is).

The other side of the séjour. That’s the kitchenette there. There will be a little shelf behind it. And that’s the front door. To the right of the front door as you walk in is the salle de bains. There’s also a closet and then another closet in the bedroom. Downstairs is a doctor’s office so it should be a quiet building. I really like the exposed beams.

Here it is from the outside. It’s on the middle floor there.

And here is what you see when you walk out the front door and turn to the right.

I am SO excited. I’m 90% sure I’ve found a replacement for myself at the coloc and she’s going to try to come down to meet everyone next week (when I won’t be here). I’ll have this apartment March 1st! Though I’ll probably take a week or two to move in. I want to set up internet before I move everything in. They’re currently repainting everything so it should look all new and redone when I get in. I can’t wait!!