If you read my blog enough you’re probably aware that I can be ridiculously nostalgic. Sometimes the passing of time alone makes me want to cry. It doesn’t help that I’ve moved cities every year since college. But it’s not even that I want old times back. It’s more that I really can’t believe they’re gone, like it’s unnatural that time passes like it does.

I’m saying this because I’m typing as my train leaves from the Gare de Lyon for Avignon to see Zandra and something is making me really sad but I don’t know what. Trains are the worst for me. I love them and look forward to them but I’m entirely too self-reflective in them. I’ve had a really nice weekend with A (otherwise known as bike-ride boy), C (another ex-student of mine), and friends of A’s in Paris. Friday night I went out with the colocs and two of their friends to a new wine/beer store/cave in Poitiers (I still do not like French beer). Last night in Paris we went to eat dinner, see a comedy, and then get relativement bourrés in a couple of bars. A’s friends were really nice and a couple of them seriously cute. We all ended up crashing around 4:30 am (changement d’horaires already accounted for) and I’m not really sure how I made it because I woke up at 7 am yesterday after sleeping really lightly. Earlier A took me to a store of random stuff (seriously–NorthFace jackets and luggage, Fruit of the Loom stuff, cowboy boots, Wranglers, magnets, etc) where an Australian girl overheard me saying I’d had my medical exam for immigration and struck up a conversation with us. She was super cute and super friendly, I wanted to put her in my pocket and take her home with me. Or just be friends with her. Her accent (in French) was really charming. I always feel bad about still having an accent in French and would rather not, but having heard hers, I think maybe I can live with it. Today we didn’t do much of anything. C, A, and I caught up on Grey’s Anatomy. There was a brocante in A’s street today and the weather was really nice–standing out on his balcony watching with C as she smoked really did not inspire me to leave.

C is not a student whom I knew at all when I was teaching in Reims. She was gone for a while on an exchange and then either didn’t come much to class or didn’t talk much when she was there. But I really liked her this weekend, and it makes me glad that I’m no longer teaching these people and can finally be friends with them no holds barred.

I’m quite happy in Poitiers but leaving Paris is surprisingly hard and I’m wondering why. Here I am going to see Zandra who I adore and is always on the top of my list of people I miss (moving every year makes this a long list) and I wish I were staying here a little longer, or maybe indefinitely. It’s not that I love Paris. I’m not sure what it is. I wish I were always surrounded by the friends I love rather than spending my free days traveling between them. Maybe it’s this feeling too.

Sigh. I want to move to Boston (or maybe somewhere in France), find a high school job, move in with a boy, and be surrounded by the people I love all the time. Is this dream out of the question?

What can be cooked/made in advance and packed in a suitcase to be dropped off once in Paris and then another sampling in Avignon? The one to get to Avignon has to last three days, Paris just one, but it would be easiest to make the same thing. I was sort of imagining something that sets… if that makes sense. Suggestions?

Last weekend was the festival Les Expressifs in Poitiers. I went into town with roommate Julien and his friends Friday night, and some of the acts were really good. Then Saturday night, when Marie and I stayed in, all the concerts were canceled from, I think, around 9 or 10 onward, because of protestors who ran around breaking windows downtown. I’m not sure what they were rioting about, but the damage was pretty evident the next day.

This week I started teaching some heures supp with some extra students who have turned out to be pretty whiny—we’ll see how it works out. But then Wednesday night Mattea came to visit. Mattea is Californian and we met last last April at Neptune’s hostel my last night in Killarney. We had a great time and met up again in Dublin for a day (Killarney>Dublin, btw… neither of us really liked Dublin). Now she is moving to Austria and decided to come through France on her way. We had a lot of fun, and I’m really glad she came and we got to know each other better. Marie speaks English but Julien and Alexis (roommate) don’t (though they certainly know more English words than Mattea knows French). Now she is gone, on some wild trajectory that goes from Nantes, to Milan, to Bratislava, to Vienna, all in the course of 24 hours and all in the effort to get to Salzburg.

Mattea bought a bag of Haribos and I decided to buy a bag of Haribo Schtroumpfs so I’m sitting here eating them. They remind me of my first trip to Paris and my 12th birthday, when two of the boys on the trip (who were usually sort of jerks) gave me a bag in a bizarre turn of generosity.

Now I am catching up on work. This week I give my masters report study to the students (I finally got IRB approval! yay!), I go to the podiatrist, and I have my immigration appointment on Friday morning. It’s going to be a packed week. But at the end of it is vacation, and j’ai hâte!!

Last summer Laurel linked to this (“Messing with Texas” by Nate Silver on fivethirtyeight.com). Every year I introduce myself to my students as being from Texas and every year I know they think immediately of Dallas (the tv show) and George W. Bush. (Of course, many Americans are guilty of this too, though they generally have a few extra stereotypes to draw from.)

But I also know that Texas is sort of an interesting topic because it is the subject of so much lore. So this year, after they introduced themselves and I introduced myself briefly, we read this from Time magazine and then read the blog post, which is about splitting Texas up into five new states. Here’s what Nate Silver (who was mostly interested in the political/electoral implications of such a split) came up with:

If you’re interested in the fictional political implications–El Norte would be Democrat, and New Texas would be a swing state. All the rest would stay Republican.

I remember reading during the 2008 primary campaigns that it was really hard to campaign in Texas because it was like campaigning in four or five different states, with drastically different demographics and political opinions. So I gave this to my students as a way of throwing down the stereotypes and making them discover a little bit of the vast diversity there is in this (still heavily conservative but not entirely either) state.

Then I made them choose a place to live and explain why. I gave them a long list of links (around 20) to get started and then told them to do their own internet research. Here is a pdf image (you can zoom in) of what they all chose. A circle means one person chose it. I couldn’t do any better than a pdf—this was harder to make than I thought, so here’s a summary:

Edit: Laurel told me how to do my own Google map so you can go look there too.

Gulfland: 18 students
El Norte: 9 students
Plainland: 1 student
New Texas: 11 students
Trinity: 1 student

and by city:

(Yes, someone chose College Station. I laughed out loud.)

Most of them had really good reasons and most had done really good research. I was practically convinced I would like to live in El Paso. Most of them were attracted to El Norte because of the Mexican culture, but some of them did pick up on the fact that it’s a very poor area. I was super happy with the six who chose Austin and the three who chose San Antonio. I should also say that I am not at all surprised that 12 of them chose Houston, given that they are future engineers.

Anyway, I totally loved this assignment and what they came up with. I even gave one girl a 19/20. I am pretty impressed with my students. (I took some heures supp again this year though with some extra students, and they are, again, sort of brats.)

in hand for Avignon in two weeks and for the fête des lumières in Lyon. And I bought easyjet tickets to Barcelone for the end of November to see Francesca. Yay!

Also, I got my OFII convocation. Of course, it’s right before my Friday class. And of course, I didn’t get their e-mail addresses this morning so I can tell them our next class (which is two weeks from now) will have to be canceled. It’s not a big deal, I can add onto the other end, or else I would try to call the OFII (which is two blocks from my house…) and change my appointment. But I’m too lazy for that. I’ll just write a note on the wall and hope they see it I guess.

Am considering buying an iPhone in November. It would be 139 euros but unlockable after 6 months, and the monthly fee would be either 26 or 39 euros. Tempting…

at the school this week got a virus from each other and went down. Mine works for typing and printing but not yet for the internet. So I’ll be working on my virus-proof Macbook till that gets fixed. This computer’s better anyway. It just isn’t hooked up to a printer… Am currently doing a scan anyway because my USB key got infected and I’d like to not infect another one and this scan is taking ages.

Tomorrow I’m going to a medecin to overwhelm her with questions about how to transition from my America-prescriptions-and-problems to French ones. Mostly I want new prescriptions, I want to know if there’s such a thing as super low-dose aspirin in France (like 80mg—is there?), and I want to be referred to a podiatrist. Maybe the French can make me some orthotics that work better and/or go into more shoes. (Certainly they will be cheaper.) Because I just about have marre of trying to find shoes for these freaking old-person feet.

so I’m finally here all by my self. But I did meet a few of the roommates’ friends when they walked into the house looking for them after the roommates themselves had already left. Am getting readjusted to bise-ing with people I don’t know at all.

Julien (roommate) walked out of the house with my (gas-perm) contacts in his pocket this morning (clearly, not in his eyes). I of course didn’t know this when I woke up and looked for them in their normal spot in the bathroom. As my students would say “ça m’a fait halluciné.” Am going to write my name on the case in big blue letters.

The students turned in their video intros yesterday and most of them are adorable. Am not going to ride them too hard with the grades on this one. Seriously I think I gave two 19s and the only reason I didn’t give 20s is because it feels wrong to.

Anyway, as is my habit when I’m bored and alone, I think I might go shopping tomorrow. I’m still looking for a pair of shoes for my old woman feet that don’t look like old woman shoes. And I hope to get an abstract written for this conference in Liege (although my study is not really right up their alley so I won’t be too surprised if it’s not accepted).

Last Sunday Marie and I went to Rochefort. (We were going to go to La Rochelle but we forgot about the Grand Pavois.)

The main square where we ate lunch

We went to tour the construction of the Hermione, which was La Fayette’s ship, and which they’re reconstructing for a trip to Boston whenever it’s finished.

It’s like the stupid foreigner moments never stop. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: Bonjour, je crois que je vais prendre juste le sandwich jambon-beurre, et puis un croissant au chocolat.
Dude: et un croissant? okay.
So he reaches for the normal chocolate-less croissant and I say
Me: Non, non, au chocolat.
Dude: Ah vous voulez au chocolat? C’est parce que vous avez dit un croissant. C’est ça un croissant (pointing).

That’s what I get for not eating enough pain au chocolat to be in practice with calling it by its normal name. But seriously. What weird fluent-in-French country did he think I was from where I didn’t know what a croissant was? I know I have an accent but it’s not American-sounding and I don’t really LOOK like a foreigner here. Anyway. It’s my own fault. He was just explaining and if I had been on top of it I would have made a joke about it and we would all have laughed. But that is one talking-to-strangers skill that I haven’t yet picked up.

Am going to go eat my freaking pain au chocolat now.

In other news: I said y’all to a few of my students today. That would never have happened pre-UT.