Thanksgiving x 2 and Reverse Surprise Party ;)

Still fighting off some sort of virus, which has now been compounded by excruciating lower back pain. Apparently, this is a sign that my 27-year-old body can no longer keep up with all these 22 and 23-year-olds I hang out with... Awesome. Had to cancel soccer in the park yesterday because of it, which was really sad. Here's hoping that a couple more days of walking around gingerly like an old woman will make my back good as new again. Because, seriously!

In spite of being hobbled by bodily aches and pains, I managed to cram a lot in this week, including not one but TWO Thanksgivings! They were amazing. The first one, on the actual day of Thanksgiving, was at another assistant's house. Erin, the hostess, had gone all out and special ordered a 10-kilo turkey from her butcher who hired his friend to go out and shoot it on Tuesday. We're talking super healthy, free-range, AMAZING turkey (better have been for the whopping price of 99 EUROS!). Poor little turkey never knew what was coming. I had to babysit before going over so I just brought beverages, but everyone else showed off superior culinary talent. We had the works: turkey, green bean casserole, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce (kind of a miracle since they just don't HAVE cranberries here), cornbread, mashed potatoes, the most delicious sweet potato casserole I've ever tasted (made by my roommate), baguettes (of course), pumpkin pie, apple pie, and strawberry shortcake. 

It was a true feast. And miraculously, 20 of us fit in Erin's living room! It was mostly Americans with three Canadians and one French guy. Delish.

The second Thanksgiving was at my friend Jasmine's apartment. She did the assistant program last year and is going to school in Lyon this year. She's a vegetarian so no turkey, but we had another fabulous spread. 

Three quiches, some sort of amazing rice-sausage-stuffing-like entree (made by a Brit for his second Thanksgiving ever), mashed potatoes (made by yours truly--first time ever and they were delicious), salad, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, potato salad, pecan pie, apple pie, sweet potato pie, two chocolate cakes, and, last but not least, Sara, Alicia, and I unveiled our pumpkin pie that we slaved over all day Friday. And by slaved over, I mean that Sara cooked the actual pumpkin and beat it into submission before bringing it over to my apartment where we threw in a little of this, a little of that, and hoped for the best. 

It was seriously delicious. Not sure I can ever go back to the pumpkin-in-a-can pumpkin pies...

Before Thanksgiving feast #2, Sara and I went over to check out the amazing Lyon Christmas market that just opened. Up until Christmas, this square just south of the city center is overtaken by a bunch of little booths selling food and drinks and gifts. Everything is decorated with lights and there's a big Christmas tree, and it's basically like walking into the North Pole...without the cold and snow. So cute. 

I didn't quite capture it in my pictures, but I have to go back anyway since I didn't eat any of the foods there considering we were about to go stuff our faces.

So in between the big Thanksgiving celebrations, Rachel and I threw a surprise birthday party for Ryan, another assistant whose birthday was on Thanksgiving and who wasn't sure how or where to celebrate. The catch is that he was over to lesson plan last weekend, and we were talking about it and we all concocted the surprise birthday party together so he was in on it. I mean, it's true that a lot of the time it's hard to plan surprise parties because you don't know what the person wants or who they want to invite or if the whole thing will work. This way, Ryan helped us with all of those details, came over early, and hid in the closet in our living room. We made everyone gather around the closet to surprise him when he came through the main door and then he popped out from behind them through a sign that Rachel had ingeniously hung across the closet so no one would open it up. It was hilarious. I only got an aftermath picture because I was too busy peeing my pants when he actually popped out. 

Things got a little stressful beforehand when everyone wanted to hide in my room, which wouldn't have been nearly as fun. But it worked and everyone was super surprised. I highly recommend reverse surprise parties for all occasions. :) And the rest of the party--our first in the apartment--was a huge success. We had drinks and snacks and a million crepes with different toppings. 

We even found a boxed chocolate cake with HAPPY BIRTHDAY candles so we could sing to Ryan. And the cake wasn't half bad! Looks like I still have my party-throwing touch here in France. :)

Not much else of note. Had another lazy Sunday yesterday. I actually spent most of it putting together this huge PowerPoint for a presentation I have to give on Thursday morning. Two of the teachers want me to take the whole hour to talk to their classes about the "Holiday Season in the U.S." meaning Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year's. I'm a little overwhelmed but am crossing my fingers that my PowerPoint works because if not, it's going to be one serious snooze-fest.

To avoid planning for my painful 2pm Monday class (blah), I made another quiche last night like the one I made before. I added mushrooms this time, and I think it's even better! Okay, since I have to go actually teach the brutal class in two hours, maybe I should figure out what I'm going to be doing... Wish me luck!

P.S. I got a successful haircut in France, in FRENCH, last Wednesday!!!! I'm really not good at haircuts and put them off as long as possible, even in the U.S., because I never know what I really want and am always petrified something will go horribly wrong and I'll come out bald. But I went to a cute little place right near my apartment, and the woman performed a miracle. She kept asking me what I wanted, and I kept telling her I trusted her and she definitely deserved that trust! Not sure you can really tell in the pictures above, but she cut off a good 4 inches, if not more, and layered it around my face really nicely. It even looks good after being slept on and not having been blow-dried or styled! My kind of haircut. :)

Soccer, Thanksgiving lessons and the cutest video ever

Not much of note since I didn't actually get out of my PJs or leave the house yesterday--trying to beat whatever cold/flu thing I have before it turns into the killer Grippe A that has taken hold of half my students... But I had a pretty productive lesson planning session with some other assistants chez moi, and we had some good venting about how disorganized things are and how little support we sometimes get. Most of us are teaching Thanksgiving lessons to all of our classes this week, which is good in that it's pretty fun to talk about (thank GOD, I'm mostly done with the intro. stuff--yes, it was easy but sooooooooooooooo boring after a month and a half!), but hard because it's a constant reminder that Thanksgiving means NOTHING here and is just going to be another random day. No turkey. No crazy family time. No eating so much that you literally HAVE to unbutton/unzip your pants. :( A bunch of assistants are getting together for a big potluck celebration, which will be fun, but it won't be the same. And I have to babysit until 8 so I'll be late. Blah.

But enough of that. I did manage to get out of my PJs on Saturday. I had organized a big meet-up in the park to play soccer and frisbee. It was a gorgeous, crisp fall day, and 12 people showed up so we played a little game of soccer to christen my new Olympique Lyonnais ball. 

It was so good to play again! Most people haven't played very much before, but we still had a fun pick-up game and then transitioned to a game of Ultimate. Yay! 

Went to a friend's house party on Saturday night, which is probably another reason I spent all of yesterday chez moi sleeping... I did watch Food, Inc. and proceeded to fall into a deep depression and almost go on a hunger strike since I don't want to eat anything that has anything to do with corn or soy AND EVERYTHING DOES. It was kind of disappointing since the movie was basically the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, kind of verbatim so it all felt a little repetitive since I just finished that a little while ago. But it was powerful and made me renew my vow to only buy local, organic food whenever possible. Go watch it!

The only other real news is that I threw a kid out of my class for the first time today. This girl always gives me serious attitude and refuses to speak in English even though I know she's better than a lot of the other kids. And today, three minutes into class, she was already not paying attention. I told her to be quiet three times, and then I kicked her out. She thought I was kidding. It was kind of awesome. For the rest of the hour, the other kids were scared of me and actually did what I asked them to. (This is my crappiest class and they really suck at English so they basically never do anything but talk to each other in French.) Emily - 1 point; crappy 2pm Monday class - 0. Ha!

But the real reason I'm posting an update is because I brought my computer to babysit tonight (I had it with me since I showed a clip from a Friends Thanksgiving episode for my class), and Aurore, Phillipe-Emmanuel, and I had a blast playing with Photo Booth. If you've never experienced the wonder of the special effects in Photo Booth, find a Mac ASAP and play around. It's hilarious. And if you can find two adorable French kids to play with it with you, it's even better. :) Even if you don't understand French, you can tell how absolutely adorable PE is.

Basically, PE is just blabbering on in the beginning about how no one can see him (because with the mirror special effect he keeps making himself disappear). Then he declares that he's a Martian since he makes himself have one eye. Then he introduces Aurore, the martian, and me, the new martian. I have now watched this video approximately 10 times, and I pee my pants every time. LOVE them. Enjoy!

Beaujolais Nouveau and some unfortunate accidents (made better with homemade crepes!)

In spite of fighting off something that I REALLY hope isn't swine flu, I managed to have a pretty good week, beginning with France qualifying for the World Cup on Wednesday (albeit playing like crap and culminating in a hand ball that led to the decisive goal). That late night didn't help my cold at all so I ended up calling in sick--for perhaps the second time in my life--on Thursday morning and spent all day sleeping. Still not sure what the protocol is for sick days for us...

Babysitting for Aurore and PE was a little eventful on Thursday because PE, I THINK, pooped in his pants. Apparently, he was just following the guinea pig's lead... I say I think because we were playing Uno (and I was about to win) and he went running from the table straight into the bathroom calling for his sister. I was then not allowed in that part of the house for a really long time, and Aurore told me he'd had an accident (meanwhile, PE was screaming bloody murder from the bathroom because he didn't want her to tell me anything) and had to take a bath. He came out later in the most adorable blue bathrobe to finish the game, and I just pretended nothing had happened since I think he was mortified. As he should be at NINE YEARS OLD. But I blame his mom for putting him under ridiculous pressure and stress at his age. Anyway, it turned out fine, and no one said anything else about it...

Then I headed to Vieux Lyon to meet up with a huge group of assistants and others to celebrate the Beaujolais Nouveau, which is apparently a pretty crappy wine but is the first of the wines to come out each year so there's a big celebration. Luckily, it was a really nice night so everyone was congregated outside.

The restaurants were all selling wine by the glass and bottle for really cheap, along with hot wine (sooooooooo good here) and really random food...including hot dogs, and because I hadn't had dinner yet and thought it would be hilarious to celebrate the Beaujolais Nouveau with a hot dog, I got one. It was perhaps the most delicious hot dog I have ever eaten. Mostly because it was on a baguette and they make a little hole, pour some ketchup in, and slide the hot dog inside. Amazing. Try it. Oh wait, Americans are incapable of making good baguettes. Sigh. Anyway, it was a great night and the wine was even pretty good! 

And because I FINALLY got my Velo'v year subscription (it only took a month), I biked home and it was awesome.

On Friday, again taking advantage of my new Velo'v access and the fact that it was a beautiful day, I went to meet Sarah, another assistant, in the park. Alas, on the way, I maybe took a minor spill on my bike. I don't think I've fallen off a bike in 20 years. Seriously. I forgot how much it sucked. Completely mortifying too. And not one single person stopped to see if I was okay. I WAS, but still. I think it was because I swore extremely loudly in English as I wiped out... I still don't know exactly what happened. I was moving over into the bike lane, and I must have caught my tire on the lip of the curb. Almost caught myself but didn't quite and did the whole bit with the bike ending up on top of me, both of us a little worse for the wear: I made it out with a couple cuts and a really sore knee, but the front of the bike got a little bent and for the rest of the ride it had to be turned to the left in order to go straight... Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. But I made it to the park finally and got to soak up the sun for awhile before going to tutor and babysit.

PE, who's been having a pretty rough week it turns out, had a meltdown while we were doing his homework yesterday. His sister was harassing him, and he just started sobbing. I couldn't understand everything he was saying because he was crying so hard, but he kept saying that Aurore treats him like her dog and hits him and then he gets in trouble, and on and on. I just wanted to wrap him in a big hug, but I'm not sure we're at that point yet. Somehow I managed to distract him and get him to finish his homework. Then he proceeded to beat me at Uno 5 times and at another card game 3 times. Then Aurore put some old records on (yes, they have a record player!), and we danced around the living room. I taught them some swing dance moves, and it was adorable.

Because it had been kind of a rough week what with being sick and the bike accident and PE's issues and all, I decided that I deserved something delicious. So I whipped up some homemade crepes for me and Rachel when I got home, and they seriously hit the spot. Crepetastic!!!

Stream of Consciousness...

Once upon a time, it was a gorgeous day and I was sitting on the little terrace of my apartment and life was perfect. The end.

Well, not so much the end. And perfect is a little bit strong. But things are damn good at this particular moment. :) I had two successful teaching days in a row where I actually TAUGHT lessons (although keep in mind that my measure of success is pretty low) and it's finally beautiful and somewhat warm again and I sorted out my Christmas break plans with the bro (Paris for 24 hours staying with my host family, back to Lyon to go see a soccer match, hanging out chez moi, and potentially a day trip to the Alps) and I bought my own soccer ball (finally!). So yes, I'm feeling good. :)

My lessons today and yesterday were alternately either about elections (because it's November and everyone loves Obama so why not give them some background on the crazy electoral voting process in the U.S. that I barely understand) or Thanksgiving (since I won't see some of my classes again until almost Christmas). I thought the election lesson was going to be super boring, but for some reason it worked! And the cutest part was that I started with having them listen to "The Star Spangled Banner" and fill in blanks in the lyrics and my last class today asked to listen to it again at the end so they could sing along. It was hilarious. And the Thanksgiving lesson went over pretty well too, although I taught it at 8:00 this morning and so have been craving turkey and stuffing since then... Oh! But the absolutely cutest part of my classes this week was when two boys (huge nerdbombers who are both pretty good in English) came up to me after class yesterday and asked to start writing to American pen pals. So if anyone knows some nice, dorky 14, 15, or 16-year-old boys who would want to and actually WOULD write to French students, let me know! I promised them addresses by next Tuesday...

What else? Not much. Monday and Tuesday are my kind of crappy, long days so I haven't been doing much besides teaching and lesson planning. I did go to Marie-Christine and Régis's house for dinner last night after babysitting. Speaking of babysitting, Rouquin, the crazy guinea pig, peed (and pooped, but c'est normal and it isn't quite as messy since it's just little pellets) all over the homework table last night and it was really kind of disgusting. Especially when Aurore and PE basically just swiped it up with some tissues kind of shoddily. Made me a lot more wary of leaning on and touching that table. And the soft spot in my heart for Rouqin seriously decreased. Anyway, dinner with the Frenchies was nice, but they continue to speak in English to me. Sigh. And Marie-Christine wanted to play Scrabble again, and even though I asked to play in French she insisted on playing in English. I have a sneaking suspicion that she won't play in French until she succeeds in beating me in English. Which sadly I don't think is going to happen... She's actually really good for someone playing in a second language, but she doesn't seem to realize that I spent the last two years of my life nerding out and playing Scrabble on Facebook ALL THE TIME. Maybe I'll just have to let her win eventually. I'm really curious to see if I'm any good at all in French. She says it's a lot easier because there are so many more little linking words. Maybe I'll just go out and buy my own Scrabble game so when she finally does play with me in French, I'll have been practicing and won't get completely annihilated!

Um, let's see. Oh! The other thing I meant to put in my blog about meeting up with Jean-Raphael on Saturday night was that at one point, Solène's husband asked about baseball and said he didn't understand it at all. So Solène started explaining it and drawing a diagram on a napkin, and I was dying trying not to laugh. In a good way. I mean, she had the basics, but she was drawing the field and said off-handedly that there were some bases around for people to run to and then she drew a bunch of bases all over the place. I had to interrupt and explain that there were in fact just three bases plus home plate and that they were set in very specific places. Maybe you had to be there, but it was cute. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to do any better if someone asked me to describe cricket or something else completely foreign to me. In fact, I have no idea what goes on in cricket at all...

Lastly, two not so perfect things. First, there are 4 cases of Grippe A (H1N1) at Collège Jean Perrin, the school I was at today and yesterday, and tons of the kids seem to be out sick. Knocking on wood and washing my hands and REALLY hoping I don't get it. Especially since I have yet to figure out how to find a médicin référent (primary care physician) and so would have no one to go to if I did get sick... And the second is that the man who lives in the apartment above mine has a serious coughing problem. EVERY SINGLE NIGHT WITHOUT FAIL, he proceeds to hack up his lung for a good hour while I'm trying to get to sleep. I'm actually kind of afraid he'll die one of these nights. Or one of his lungs will pop out and fly down the pipes into my bedroom... It's a really awful sound. I usually end up muttering in English at my ceiling telling him to go to a doctor and stop smoking (because chances are pretty good that he smokes) and dear god, FALL ASLEEP SO THAT I CAN. Last night, I seriously contemplated putting a note in his mailbox asking him to go get himself checked out. Or move to another apartment. Sigh. Gotta love the thin French walls. I suppose it could be a lot worse...

Off to go for a run and then hopefully test out my new soccer ball--yay!

Host brother reunion and my first quiche!

Hey! Look at me posting only two days after my last update! I'm just so excited because I made my first quiche and it is absolutely gorgeous, if I do say so myself. I mean, I know quiches are super easy to make and I can't really call myself a chef or anything after one successful quiche... But for those of you who know me well, you know that I don't exactly make a habit of cooking generally. And for those of you who have lived with me, you know how completely stupid and naive I can be in the kitchen. Hence, my excitement at my creation of Spinach-Zucchini-Goat Cheese-Walnut Quiche. 

Sounds a little intense, but it's super good, I promise. And if I can do it here with nothing really resembling a measuring cup and no culinary skills, ANYONE can do it. Seriously. I got the recipe (below) from another assistant here, but for those of you cooks out there, check out other recipes on her blog: http://freezergourmet.blogspot.com/. It's awesome.

Spinach Zucchini Goat Cheese Walnut Quiche

-1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced

-1 tablespoon butter or olive oil

-1 unbaked pie crust

-2 rounds fresh goat cheese (about 6-8 oz)

-3 eggs

-8 oz crème fraiche

-salt and pepper

-2 cups fresh spinach, chopped

-toasted chopped walnuts

 Sautee the zucchini in butter or olive oil until tender, set aside to cool slightly. Wipe out sautee pan and reheat. Toast the walnuts until slightly browned... be careful not to walk away, they burn quickly! Set nuts aside. Roll pie crust into a pie dish and sprinkle with 2/3 of the goat cheese. Lay zucchini over cheese. In a medium bowl, beat eggs, crème fraiche, salt and pepper. Stir in chopped spinach until well coated. Pour mixture over the zucchini and top with remaining goat cheese and finally walnuts. Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes.

So yeah, on to even more exciting news! I met up with my host brother, Jean-Raphael, from when I studied in Paris during my sophomore year of college. He was visiting a friend in Lyon so I met up with him, his friend, Solène, and Solène's husband, David, to watch the French national soccer team play Ireland last night. It was a big qualifying game for the World Cup, and France won 1-0 so hopefully they'll play just as well in the second round against Ireland on Wednesday and hold on to the win.

Anyway, it was awesome to see Jean-Raphael, and I mostly understood the French they were all speaking with each other. Jean-Raphael said his family is doing well, and he's enjoying his internship in Paris and might stay on and actually get paid starting in January. I'm hoping to see him again and the whole family in December when my bro and I are training to Paris right before Christmas. But the family is heading to their Normandy house for the Christmas break so I'm not sure if the logistics will all work out. I also found out that Jean-Raphael has a girlfriend (I think that's what I overheard him telling Solène) so alas, I will have to find another Frenchman to seduce... Sigh. ;)

It turns out that Jean-Raphael's friends, Solène and David, actually live pretty close to me in Lyon so hopefully I'll get to hang out with them some more. Solène spent a year in Norwich, VT in high school so her English is pretty good. After the soccer match ended, she wanted to practice some so we switched to English. She was reminiscing about American foods she missed, and I mentioned my bagel and cream cheese craving. Apparently, there's a place that sells them here so we're going to meet up to go in the next week or so. I probably shouldn't be expecting New York-style bagels though...

I slept in today and then met up with some assistants in the park to play frisbee and soccer in an off-and-on warm drizzle. Unfortunately, none of us owns a soccer ball yet and every single store in the ENTIRE city is closed on Sundays so we were forced to stick to frisbee. I still broke out my cleats since it was muddy and slippery and DAMN IT, I brought those things all this way so I am determined to get some use out of them!

Now I'm avoiding the inevitable lesson planning for the week... Blah.

Soccer, Ballet, School Craziness--ah, France...

Feeling SOOOOOOOOOOO good right now--I just went for a run outside in shorts because it's finally gorgeous! (It's been painful getting back on the exercise wagon, particularly without an awesome gym and exorbitant membership guilting me into it, but my daily pain au chocolat and mounds of cheese have made it necessary if I don't want to have to buy myself two seats on the plane coming back to the States...) It's been rainy and miserable basically since I got back from Amsterdam so it's nice to see some sun again. I also no longer have the excuse that there's nowhere to run because, even though I'm now too far away from the beautiful park to easily go running there, I'm close enough to Lyon "suburbs" to run down nice residential streets with big sidewalks right from my apartment. :)

Okay, on to more exciting news. Looks like I'm probably not going to be able to average much more than one post a week so you're just going to have to deal with super long posts... I'll do my best to remember and only recount the good stuff.

STARTING WITH the fact that I amazingly and miraculously somehow got tickets to the Lyon-Liverpool Champions League match last Wednesday, the day I got back from Amsterdam. I had been trying to get tickets to go with a bunch of people, but no one got back to me in time so the affordable tickets were sold out. But Damien, the guy that Rachel and I lived with the first couple of weeks here, found two tickets on ebay, I think, that weren't too expensive. I mean, this game was huge. Lyon had just beat Liverpool at their stadium for the first time ever three weeks earlier, and there's a pretty big rivalry between the teams. Plus, it was a Champions League match so it was a big deal. Damien ended up not feeling like going so I went with another assistant, Marissa, who wanted a real French football experience. It was craziness! We weren't in the section that stands up the whole time, but we were in the upper stadium so now I've sat in different sections of the stadium all four times I've gone! The picture shows the beginning of the game when they give differently colored sheets of paper to people sitting in the Lyon fan section (I was in the Liverpool section but was surrounded by Lyon fans) to spell things out--I sat over there my first game at the stadium and had no idea what was going on with the paper. Now I know. :) 

The game itself was kind of boring until the last minute when Lyon scored to tie the game at 1-1. But we made friends with our neighbors, and I knew the words to some of the cheers, and it was definitely worth it.

Going back to teaching on Thursday was a little brutal. I'm still having some classes for the first time, and I had trouble finding a room for one of the classes (so annoying since it's really awkward to be running around the school trying to find an empty classroom without a key to open the room up when and if you find one while you have kids waiting around for you), but I think I finally have most of those little details worked out. A month and a half later. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Had a great weekend, mostly not sleeping. Patrick's Quebecois friend had a huge house party on Friday with people from all over. I spent half of the night somehow chatting with these guys from Spain who I don't think spoke English or French. And they were 21... Then met up with some assistants on Saturday afternoon for delicious crepes at this adorable restaurant--something we are trying to make into a tradition. Yay crepes! In spite of the fact that they have millions of different kinds there, I caved and got my good old banana-nutella fave. Mmmmm. Then we went to Ryan's house where his roommate, Ana, a Spanish assistant, was having a little house party. We ended up playing card games in English (because someone's friends from home were visiting and didn't speak French at all) and French (because Ana doesn't speak English). It was hilarious.

I tried and mostly failed to lesson plan on Sunday. I'm still doing pairs getting to know the kids at College de Vaise, but for my one regular class there on Mondays I tried to do a lesson on vacation (since we'd just come back from one and all) incorporating some music with them having to fill in some of the lyrics and then playing a game. It didn't so much work, but I think they still had fun. Would be really helpful if I knew HOW to lesson plan... Ah, good times. It doesn't help too much either when you plan a lesson for 10-15 kids and end up having 2-3, which is what happened to me in two of my classes on Tuesday. That school, College Jean Perrin, has taken a lot longer to get my schedule organized so it was my first time seeing those kids. Instead of 6 in my first class, I had 3. Still not sure how I managed to drag the lesson out into the full 55 minutes. But the three kids have a pretty high level of English, comparatively, and so I can probably do some fun small group things with them. For my second class, I had 2 kids instead of 10. I just scrapped the lesson and talked to the two girls. They couldn't really speak English at all so we mostly spoke in French and their teacher was next door and came up to me afterwards to tell me she heard some French spoken. Not sure what she really expected me to do with two kids who don't speak English AT ALL, but the girls were adorable and we had a great conversation in Franglais so whatever. At least we were talking about the United States in French--doesn't that count? Kind of? My third class was like 9 kids instead of 7 so we did the real lesson and it went fine for the most part. 

During one of my hour breaks (I have four on Tuesdays--just short enough so I have to stay at the school basically the entire day even though I only teach three classes), I sat in on a planning period with two of the English teachers, which was really helpful getting to see what and how they're learning in their real classes. And also hearing that the actual teachers struggle with the same behavior issues. Then I went to eat lunch in the cafeteria with the teachers, and the food was surprisingly good! I still don't have my own card to swipe there because the person who gives the cards out doesn't seem to ever WORK. But one of the other teachers paid for me, so that was nice.

We had Wednesday off for Armistice Day and about 15 of us got together for an amazingly delicious American brunch. Because I babysat Tuesday night and then went out for dinner, I didn't have time to make anything so I brought mimosas. It's not a brunch without those! :) We all ended up hanging out for like 5 hours brainstorming lesson plans and cracking up about our teaching experiences. And then one of the other assistants mentioned that she was going to the Opera to see Baryshnikov dance. I had seen posters of him all over Lyon but didn't really believe that HE was actually coming to perform. For those non-ballet-obsessed people, Mikhail Baryshnikov is basically a god in the ballet world, but he's 61 years old and doesn't really perform much anymore. He was, in fact, coming to dance two solos and two duets with an even older ballerina, and I freaked out and made the entire group come to the Opera with me to see if they still had tickets. They did (and cheap!) so a bunch of us ended up buying tickets and going last night, and it was amazing.

 I mean, he didn't exactly leap everywhere or do his incredible pirouettes, but the four pieces were extremely moving and I just couldn't believe that I was actually seeing HIM. I did tour jetés down into the metro on the way home. :)

I think I'm successfully caught up now. What am I forgetting? Oh! So not sure I ever wrote it in here, but right before vacation my bed broke. Get your minds out of the gutter, people--I literally just sat down on it and the middle plank splintered. Clearly, this was yet another sign that I needed to start exercising again. Also, further proof that IKEA products are kind of crappy, even in Europe. So I just put my mattress on the floor and have been sleeping on it like that. But the new bedframe was delivered yesterday afternoon so now I have a bedframe again. Although, due to a miscommunication between IKEA and my landlady and the fact that I don't speak French well enough to argue, the IKEA guys took the old bed without leaving the posts that I guess I needed for the new frame, so the frame is fine and all, but it's still just on the ground and not actually raised up at all. My landlady keeps calling me about it, but it's perfectly comfortable and I'm so tired of dealing with it that I'm ignoring her. Is that bad? :)

What else? Aurore and Phillipe-Emmanuel continue to be the cutest kids ever. I love them. I might steal them at the end of the year. I doubt their parents will even notice since they are NEVER home. Have yet to meet the dad and have still only seen the mom twice, including the first time I met her. I brought manegtic word poetry in English over for Aurore, and she loves it. And I introduced them to Reese's peanut butter cups, which they also loved. Feel free to send packages of those to me--they don't have them over here... PE continues to cheat and beat me at every game we play, but it's hilarious. He and I had an intense conversation last night about Judaism because I guess he has a friend who told him that Jews aren't allowed to say the name of God. Took awhile for me to explain that there are different levels of Judaism and I'm not so much that kind of Jew... It was entertaining for me.

Off to eat and shower!

AMSTERDAM!!! Part two...

Wow. Lots to catch up on here. Yikes. Definitely been avoiding doing this update, not gonna lie. But here goes:

Wednesday: Obviously, made it to Amsterdam safely and, as mentioned, was incredibly awed by the Alps from the plane. My pictures even sort of almost captured it! Had some serious trouble figuring out the train ticket machine, but some random woman gave me a free ticket since she was leaving that day so I just waltzed on to the train and then on to the tram when I got to Centraal Station. Leah's apartment isn't in the very center of the city, which was nice. She and Brett had a delicious meal of fried rice ready and waiting for me, along with copious amounts of Heineken beer (the brewery, Heineken Experience, is basically next door to their apartment), which tastes sooooooooooooooo much better in Amsterdam than in the U.S.! After dinner, Leah took me on a little tour of the mini Red Light District around the corner from her apartment. Clearly, those women aren't the cream of the Amsterdam prostitute crop. They were older and, ahem, not in the best physical shape. I honestly wonder how so many of them can make a living, but who am I to judge... Anyway, it was so great to see Leah and have our own little mini Carleton reunion! And their apartment is so comfortable--they even have this amazing little electric fly swatter thing since the canals mean mosquitoes are a serious problem. Brett went on a little killing spree before we went to bed so I wouldn't get eaten alive in my sleep...

Thursday: Leah had to work, but I slept in and then Brett pointed me in the direction of the Albert Cuyp market (not that I could have EVER missed it), which is this amazing daily street market also right next to their apartment. They sell everything from bags and boots and batteries to waffle-syrup sandwiches, octupuses (octupi?), disgusting herring sandwiches, and chocolate penises.

 

I wandered through that and then put my map away and just started walking. Hilariously (and rather appropriately, I guess), I ended up wandering into the Jewish Quarter first. Looking for "my people" subconsciously, maybe? 

I took way too many pictures of everything; just couldn't get over all the bikes everywhere and the canals and the houses. And then, like the cows that were all over Boston a couple years ago, there was this elephant sculpture thing going on in Amsterdam to raise money to save the Asian elephant so there were really cool elephant sculptures all over the place. Here's my fave--Obama!

More wandering led me to the city center and the real Red Light District along with tons and tons of coffee shops and sex stores and everything you could ever imagine...and more. Kind of intense. Moved on to the shopping district and stopped for some really good frites with

amazing mayo sauce at a stand highlighted in my guidebook. 

I made it back to Leah's later that afternoon to rest my feet, and then hopped on the tram to go meet up with Leah and Brett at the university where he takes classes for his Master's program and where she works. Every Thursday they have this student/faculty geology drink-fest in this little bar room at the university with cheap beer (less than a euro for good beer!) and snacks. Everyone speaks English, but it was a big mix of nationalities, although I may have been the only person there who doesn't study rocks... But it was fun, and after a couple hours, they turned on music and everyone danced. Good times. Since both Leah and Brett had their bikes, I got chauffeured home on the back of Brett's bike, which was maybe one of the highlights of the trip. :)

Friday: Slept in again and waited way too impatiently for Steph to land. But she made it, and I almost died when she rang the doorbell and was just there! So crazy. She had slept well on the plane (because Steph can sleep anywhere, anytime) so off we went. 

Had an amazingly delicious brunch/lunch at this bakery near Leah's house and then mostly just wandered in a slightly different direction than I had gone on Thursday. We eventually ended up at the Anne Frank House. We took the tour, which was relatively short but well-done. Really crazy to think that so many people lived hidden for so long in those rooms. And that they were SO close to making it through the war! It was dark and cold when we were done so, on the suggestion of my guidebook and this random Canadian we ran into on the street (we were looking lost, I guess), we went to the Winkel Cafe for the best tea and apple pie I have ever eaten. Ever. The tea they have there is hot water, sugar, honey, and fresh mint leaves, and it's to

die for. And I can't even begin to describe the apple pie. If you go to Amsterdam, it's a must. :)

We went back to meet up with Leah for dinner. Apparently, the Dutch waiters rival the French for poorest service anywhere because they don't need to work for tips and usually a table will only have one seating a night. So our dinner kind of lasted a SUPER long time. But it was delicious. Out for a drink after (where we were surrounded and seriously dwarfed by unbelievably tall, blonde Dutch men), and then we collapsed back at Leah's.

Saturday: Steph and I woke up early (well, I woke up early since I had set my alarm--Steph was apparently more jetlagged than she had thought and only woke up when I "accidentally" bumped the couch she was sleeping on...) But in spite of our later-ish start, we went off to the Van Gogh museum, along with eight million other people. It was a nice museum in a really cool building, but there were just so many people! I can't imagine what it's like when it's actually tourist season there... One of the iconic "I amsterdam" sculptures was near the museum too so we got our obligatory pictures there, of course!

Wandered leisurely back and bought some food (amazing bread at the bakery from Friday and cheese, dried fruit, and strawberries at the Albert Cuyp market) for a little picnic on one of Leah's colleagues's boat. We loaded everything into backpacks, and I hopped on the back of Brett's bike and Steph got on Leah's to make the trek to the canal. Unfortunately, Leah's bike tire was on its last leg and blew out (with smoke and a huge bang!) right in the middle of a crazy intersection. It was kind of hilarious. So they took the tram and met me and Brett at the canal. Leah's friend's boat was nice and comfy with seat cushions. And he and his brother had brought a bunch of food too. We boated up and down a bunch of canals, and it was really cool to be able to see the city from the water and experience some of the crazy intersections (and several almost collisions!). 

It got steadily colder and colder even though the sun was trying to come out, so we didn't last too long and ended up heading to a brewery off the beaten path near an old windmill to warm up. A couple other people met up with us, and we headed back to Leah's apartment for a little dinner party.

I kept forgetting that it was Halloween since no one really makes a big deal of it over here, but it was impossible to forget when Steph and I ventured out later that night in search of a bar showing the World Series game (being from NYC, Steph felt it was her duty to try to follow the Yankees, even though we were both DEFINITELY rooting for the Phillies). The sports bar that Brett had suggested was in Leidsplein, which is this crazy place where apparently every single underage American kid visiting Amsterdam went to celebrate Halloween. Clearly I am getting too old for that craziness. They were all so annoying! But the costumes were funny, and we did end up finding a place to watch the game...even though there was a stupid hour rain delay! Then the bar closed at 3:30 before the game was over and in spite of a 3-0 Phillies lead, apparently the Yankees made a comeback later on. And then, of course, went on to win. Blah. I'm glad I'm not in Boston to have to deal with that...

Sunday: We had already set aside Sunday as our serious lazy day, which was good since we didn't really move until noon. Packed up our things, said goodbye to Brett and Leah (who was leaving on Monday for a work trip to Morocco), and headed to Steph's friend's apartment. Julia was Steph's roommate in CA a couple years ago, and now she lives in Amsterdam with her boyfriend and works for Adidas. So cool! They live a little closer to the city center right by the flower market (gorgeous even in the rain!) in a huge and gorgeous apartment right on a canal. 

With an adorable little dog! It was rainy and gross so we went out for a nice lunch with some of Julia's friends and then proceeded to laze on the couch and watch maybe 3 or 4 movies in a row. :)

Monday: Was Steph's birthday!!! The tempurpedic bed and pillow and dark cave-like room we stayed in did nothing to motivate us to get up, so we didn't actually get a start on our day until after 12... Which really hindered our search for a good birthday breakfast croissant for Steph. But we eventually found one and some good coffee (although we found out that the place we went, Coffee Company, is actually owned by Starbucks since they aren't allowed to have any of their own coffee places in Amsterdam--they're trying to cut down on the foreign franchises in the city center). We made it to the Rijks Museum, which is undergoing massive renovations and so is only partially open. Did a quick tour of some really old Dutch artifacts and history along with some Rembrandt paintings and then went Dutch by renting bikes! So hilarious. 

We biked through Vondelpark, the biggest park area in Amsterdam, and then braved the real streets. We were trying to get to another park but ended up getting really turned around and biking basically out of the city into a random suburb... But I still call it a success because we didn't get run over or run anyone else over--and that is a serious feat. :)

Back to Julia's and then off with her for a girl's dinner at Fifteen, this really cool restaurant kind of out of the way started by Brit chef, Jamie Oliver, where he hires 15 aspiring chefs and trains them in his kitchen for a year to help give them a start in the industry. Again, the service left something to be desired. Especially considering that there were maybe 4 parties in the 

whole place (a TON of empty tables) and we were right on time for our reservation and yet somehow ended up having to wait at the bar to be seated for over 30 minutes. I guess we were supposed to savor our cocktails there. I didn't get that memo and was saving my really delicious cranberry-vodka (with good Amsterdam vodka) for the meal, but the bartender thought I didn't like it and actually came over and asked me if I wanted something else instead. Mortifying. I proceeded to suck it down... :) But the food was delicious. We had the 4-course meal and got different things so we could share them all. No candle in the dessert because I didn't want Steph to die of embarrassment, but we did get a picture with our cute waiter. He asked us all sorts of questions about the easiest way to get to the U.S. for foreigners and where he should go to snowboard and surf. I told him the easiest way was to marry someone. Hey, and I happen to know someone available! ;)

Tuesday: Went out for a traditional Dutch pancake breakfast, although my savory pancake was more cheese than anything else... Then dropped our things off at the sketchy hotel near the train station where I was staying that night and went off for some last minute boutique shopping. Walked Steph to the train station in the drizzle and went back to the hotel where, miraculously, I managed to meet up with my old roommate from Boston, Jessi, since she had a

 week layover in Brussels on her way back to the U.S. from Rwanda where she's been working for a year. I still can't believe that without cell phones or computers we managed to find each other. But it was so good to see her and to catch up, and I felt a lot better having someone else with me at this hotel. I mean, it was a fine hotel. Cheap, clean(ish), really nice front desk people. But it was one street over from the Red Light District and the whole place smelled like a big weed plant... We managed to find a cozy little cafe on the canal in the gross rain and had a delicious meal. I think the cafe was really just for students, but we crashed their little local place and had a great time catching up. We then proceeded to be extremely sketchy and walk through all the Red Light alleys since Jessi just couldn't get enough of seeing the women in the windows just hanging out. Literally HANGING out. We were the only women on most of the streets and it was hilariously awkward. I hadn't been to the area at night at all so it was kind of a shock to see so many of the windows with the curtains drawn (business was booming) and to see men actually going in and out. Ack!

Back to the hotel to talk for too long and then up at 4am to say goodbye to Jessi and stumble to the train station, then the airport, then back to Zurich and finally home to Lyon. As much as I loved Amsterdam with all the bikes and canals and amazing architecture and could actually maybe see myself living there at some point if the opportunity arose, I am so glad to be back in my cute apartment in Lyon where I (semi) understand the language and can at least pronounce the street names... :)