November 9, 2005
I promise you the second part of my vacation will be up on Thursday. I slept in late and I’m not sure if I’m going to have enough time to type up two entries and I rather get this one done today.
Monday, I went to work as usual. I had a new class who I haven’t met with before. Their teacher always gives me work to correct their homework and stuff that they don’t really have much interest in. So I rushed through the homework and went onto other things, like music and movies, to get their attention back. I always tell classes that I don’t know much French; I was told by the administration to do this, but it also makes it fun for me. About half way through the class, the only boy, who was constantly bothering the girl sitting next to him, came out with a gem: “Elle est jolie.”(She’s pretty) I stopped my lesson because I couldn’t believe it and the rest of class started whispering in French “She understood that.” I smiled because I didn’t want to laugh, while his classmates broke out into loud laughs. His face turned so red. He sat the rest of class with his head on the desk.
I’ve been trying to stay away from the cook so I cook stuff really fast and get out of the kitchen. I had Turkey Cordon Blue (a frozen brick of meat and cheese) and fries for dinner. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t that good either; I think I’m going to stay away from those from now on, even if they are on sale.
I’ve been working on my Christmas stocking a little too much and that’s why the website isn’t really up to date. I expect to finish this one by next Wednesday. When I’m done, I’ll put a pick up.
On Tuesday, I only had one class to sit in on. It seems like the woman that I’m supposed to help on Tuesday afternoons doesn’t really like me much. I don’t know. Anyway, I finished my paperwork for my green card and when it’s ready for pick up, I’ll get a letter in the mail. I’ve been really taking advantage of school meals. They provide so much food. Anyway, after school I walked back home and called Phil. When I finish with classes on most days, he’s just starting. After my phone call, I went for a run for the first time in forever. My muscles are really getting me back today. I ran two miles yesterday and I plan on continuing running for four times a week and I want to increase my amount that I run every half a week.
Tuesday night, my building had a Swedish dinner. Each person who comes from a different country is supposed to host a dinner with traditional dishes before they leave. I had helped prepare the apple cake on Monday night. The dinner was supposed to start at 7:30, but we didn’t start eating until about 8:30. I met my neighbor on the other side of my room. Her name is Marie-Laure and she works as a safety engineer for the local government. We were talking about all of the car and building torching that has been going on around France and I said that we were lucky nothing was happening here. I was wrong. A few people started to tell me that over the weekend the movie theatre parking lot was basically set ablaze. 40 cars were destroyed. They had to stop the movie in order to get people to check if their car was ok.
I really would like to come home in one piece so I have been really cautious about not going out at night and if my classes get out after dark to get home as fast as possible. I didn’t need to hear about how it’s happening in town. All of my teachers in my school had told me that there is nothing to worry about and that there hasn’t been one thing that happened in Valence. I forgot that they all live outside of this town and commute in.
Anyway, the dinner was really good. It started with a salad, then Swedish meatballs and potatoes, and it finished with apple cake and ice cream.
