Turns out NYU (which I’ve already almost finished applying to) has a Masters in teaching French that has you study your first year in Paris. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t up on the website when I was looking for programs so I’m going to figure out if I can transfer my application over. That would be super exciting–I could be in France and grad school at the same time.

I have found some surprisingly fabulous things (clothes) to spend money on while in the U.S. I had been hoping to save my spending money for the soldes but it looks like everything I was hoping to buy I’ve just bought.

My parents have a meeting in St. Malo in July and a meeting in Spain (in or maybe just near the Pyrenees) and I think I’ll be able to meet up with them for both.

Hello! Estoy en Tejas. Staying in Paris with the Y’s was really nice. Mrs. Y and I walked to the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps and walked up to the top to get a look at Paris. I took pictures on my cell phone but now that I’m in the U.S. the cell phone doesn’t really seem to want to let me look at them.

My flight home was uneventful. Actually it was really mortifyingly boring. The audio thing on my armrest didn’t work so I couldn’t watch tv. My entire family picked me up and then we went to dinner in Houston, and then we drove home, where I wrapped presents and then fell asleep. Christmas was pretty good. My brother gave me all three seasons of Arrested Development which is AWESOME and my parents gave me Our Dumb World. I want to copy some of the U.S. pages and put them on the walls of my classroom. I might do all the anglophone countries. Well not all. That’s an awful lot. The big ones.

My mom made lots of cookies and there’s lots of chocolate in general laying around. We have those little Dove chocolates with the weird messages on the inside. Here’s a sampling:

Test your own limits and keep growing.
Smile at yourself in the mirror.
Flirting is mandatory.
Make your eyes twinkle.
Remember your first everything.
Be fearless.
Some people will wonder what you’ve been up to.
Remember your first everything.

Yeah. Wtf?

I drove the Prius this morning and that was pretty fun. I also installed Leopard on here.

Hello, I have another video. Only, FAMILY MEMBERS can’t watch it until after Christmas, seriously, because it shows every Christmas present I bought. Also, the sound quality is bad because my mic wasn’t behaving. But it should be good enough to watch. Also half of it is visual. I hope it doesn’t take too long to load. I’m really excited about everything I’ve bought, obviously.

I hope that was comprehensible. My students today wanted to talk a lot about the U.S. so we did. I don’t know what I’ll have left to talk about when I can no longer give random opinions and explanations about my culture. I tried to explain the electoral college this morning. I think they got it. As much as anyone does really. So now I’m done teaching until January.

I proposed the idea of going to northern Italy in February (we have a one week break) to Linda and Doris tonight and they seemed up for it. So during the holiday I get to do research on cheap flights and hotels. Yay! I feel like I haven’t traveled at all this fall.

Oh yeah, I got my new carte de sejour today! I had to go pay for the 55-euro stamp, that wasn’t as much fun. But I’m so happy to have it before I leave the country. It’s a CDS visiteur – assistant lecteur which seems slightly weird, last year I think I was a travailleur temporaire but whatever. It’s good till Sep 19th.

I can’t believe it’s already almost Christmas, where did the time go? And what was I doing with it? Things have certainly improved since I arrived here but it’s still sometimes shocking how different my life is from how I thought it would be.

I did nothing today but give a test and then grade it. Which was interesting, but I shouldn’t talk about it on the interweb. Tomorrow is my last day of work till mid-January.

I want to go somewher exciting in February but we only have one week and I have to convince someone to go with me.

That is the background noise for a umm… I’m ashamed to say it… video blog? that I did five minutes ago when my microphone decided to work for a little while. Actually the scree isn’t all that bad. It was like that on my old Macbook too. Now let’s see if I can get this to embed.

I got an e-mail about the Spanish class I signed up for. Until the end of March it’s on Thursday evenings like they said but it switches to Mondays which I can’t do! I’m not sure what to do. I guess maybe I’ll go the first day and ask the instructor. BUT I did find the real e-mail address for the musical group and they said they’d be happy to have me, so I’m going to do that.

I want to wrap my Christmas gifts NOW but they’ll just get smooshed in my luggage.

You know what I hate? When Un Gars Une Fille is the same as the day before.

Also I went in to work early this morning which was interesting. I discovered some things. 1) the bus is empty at 7 am, awesome 2) the school does not open until 7:30 and there is an alarm system. It’s okay though, I didn’t set it off.

I can’t wait to get home on Monday!

In the end I just went to Monoprix, where they only had the demi bottle of Veuve Clicquot, so I got Taittinger instead. Maybe when I have a guest I’ll go to Veuve Clicquot.

I’ve printed off the copies of the exam for tomorrow morning and I’ve got my lesson planned for Friday (same one I did today only I’ll try to make it a bit longer) so I guess I’m sort of free. I think I might take a nap.

Well I got some ideas about Christmas gifts yesterday so today I went out and bought more. I’m really excited about them. I can’t say what they are of course because some (well, 2) of my gift recipients read this. Maybe I’ll take a picture of them all spread out on my floor and post it after Christmas.

The party last night was pretty different from our first one–far fewer people but more good conversation. I had a really good time. Today thanks to Linda I found a laverie about a block from the residence so I went there because, again, ours is en panne. But this time I don’t have to care because there IS a friendly (by which I mean empty) neighborhood laverie.

Also I contacted the Ys and they said I could definitely stay with them the night of the 23rd. So that’ll be nice.

So here are some pictures from last night (I finally took some):

Doris, Shillyboy, Me, Regis, Linda. I think I was trying to look sarcastic and instead I just look sad.

I made them do this, I can’t decide which picture is better.

Me, Doris, Linda

One last thing, I bought the new Pauline Croze cd. M told me about her, and she’s coming to Reims in April, and I really like her so far.

and was pretty busy this week. Wednesday all us lecteurs had pizza together and watched Norbit, which I have to say was funnier than I expected. Today we all went to Cora to buy stuff for the party we’re throwing tonight, and then I went to meet up with a French high schooler who wants to speak English with someone. And, obviously, there’s our party tonight.

I thought I had more to post but I don’t really. The second Elizabeth movie is here in VO so I think I’ll go see it tomorrow. Am also considering buying more Christmas presents. I know where I’m going to get our Christmas champagne now (Veuve Cliquot down by the school). I think I’ll do that this week. Actually I pretty much have to do that this week.

I finished The Human Stain.

Not much going on besides the teaching. I showed the students the part of 30 Rock today and they laughed. So did I. I love that show now. The I ate lunch at Mme M’s house and we talked about the students and the classes. It was informative.

I got a letter from the MGEN re: my état civil. They want a copy of my birth certificate, with a translation. I’m considering calling and explaining that I already sent them a copy of my birth certificate, why do they want another one, especially since it’s not going to tell them anything about my état civil, and since I’m not married, and I’m not getting married, I don’t see why I should have to prove to them that I’m single. Why do they make my life difficult?!