The perils of bad internet

My internet quota here at the residence ran around before I could post the last two nights, so I just got those posts up today. And I hope my internet doesn't cut out before I get this one posted! Maybe I should stop waiting to write these until the end of the day when I've used up nearing all my quota...

Anyway, I've gotten really used to living in France and I know I'm going to be sad to leave, but I'm also getting more and more excited to be back home and see all my friends, my parents, and my cat. There are so many things I'm excited to do. This blog is becoming very list-centric, but I like making lists, so... yeah. Things I'm looking forward to doing:

1. Having a barbecue
2. Sitting on my couch and watching tv
3. Driving
4. Having a refrigerator
5. Having a KITCHEN (!) and being able to cook and bake (!!!)
6. Living in more than just a 10 x 10 room
7. Having a backyard
8. Being able to drink cold milk, not shelf-safe milk (bleh)
9. Dressing in more than just the 10 or so outfits I've been wearing for the past 6.5 months
10. Reading physical books, not just ebooks (which are fine, but I miss holding a real book)

Cups of tea: 28

Memories and songs

I have an iTunes playlist of songs that I heavily attach to specific memories, times, or places. So, I hit shuffle and these are the first five songs that popped up:

1. "White Houses" - Vanessa Carlton

In seventh grade my close friend Kyle and I would spend hours on the phone together talking, listening to music, playing neopets... yeah, we were awesome. And yep, I come from that generation where we used to talk on the phone for hours instead of just IMing, good times. Anyway, we listened to this song over and over and over. On my old itunes it had hundreds of plays.

2. "This Is The Night" from the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire soundtrack

This soundtrack was on repeat for weeks before the movie was released. My friends and I were particularly enthusiastic about the songs from the Yule Ball that were "real songz!!1~" We would dance around in my living room dancing to these... a lot.

3. "Middle of the Hill" - Josh Pyke

I started subscribing to and watching youtubers in 2006, right there at the beginning. The first person I watched regularly was Caitlin Hill (TheHill88). She played this song in one of her videos; I then downloaded it and listened to it lots. It reminds me of oldschool youtube and summer/spring of junior year.

4. "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" - The Postal Service

I would listen to this album a lot while driving around in Massachusetts while we were out there for Christmas. This song reminds me of being in the back seat while we drive back to my aunt's house at night. And also writing the lyrics on my folder junior year, just a little bit.

5. "Lollipop" - Mika

Loved this song freshman year of college. It was my go-to song to listen to after I showered/when I was getting ready for bed in the dormroom (when my roommate wasn't there, of course).

This was fun! Maybe I'll do it again in another post.

Cups of tea: 25

Superheroes

Inspired by this video by frezned, I bring you a list of superpowers I'd like to have and which would also be useful:

1. Turn into a tardigrade: In the same vein as Tom's idea of turning into a flock of crows, turning into a tardigrade would be dead useful (pun intended). Think about it, you could survive... anywhere! This power would be useful for self-preservation, not so much fighting evil. But if you could survive no matter what, you would then be there to still fight evil- hah!
2. Control hormone levels: You could increase your own level of adrenaline, make your enemies uncontrollably sleepy, etc. You could also decrease people's risk of breast cancer and other such things.
3. Control how gravity affects people: You could make yourself feel much lighter and move more quickly, but enemies much heavier so they could only more with difficulty. You could also bounce around, so- fun factor.
4. Talk with a certain type of animal and have it help you: I got this idea from reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. You could know what was going on, feasibly, all over the world. The added power of being able to turn into a group of that type of animal would also be pretty useful.

Okay, I'm out of ideas for now.

Cups of tea: 23

Yet another quick post

I'm tired and a bit cranky, so it's going to be another half-assed post tonight. I'm really only doing beda/balia for myself anyway, so... deal with it, me. *sunglasses*

I only have five days of actual classes left to teach, so that's cool. Then I have lots of vacation timez, which is also cool. Yupp

What's the coolest thing to happen today, though? I found out how much money I'm getting back in federal housing aid! The French government is pretty great in that they give housing aid to people who don't make a lot of money (me), even if you're foreign (me). Well, I applied in November and all my papers have finally gone through... I'm getting reimboursed 900 euros for my rent for the past 5 months! Huzzah. I was thinking I'd have to borrow lots of money from my parents for my vacation, but this will cover it! Good news indeed.

In other news, I also ate my Easter Cadbury creme egg. It was delicious.

Cups of tea: 22

Some things I'll miss about France...

As I sit here eating pineapple yogurt, I'm inspired to make a little list of things I'm going to miss about France. So here we go, BEDA day 10 (which is really more like Blog A Lot In April by this point).

1. Pineapple yogurt
2. Cheap and good bread and pastries
3. Credit and debit cards with the little chip in them
4. The little credit card machines at restaurants that let you pay individually, so much easier than splitting a check
5. Good transportation, especially trains
6. Being able to visit Paris on weekends and see Sarah
7. Speaking French and (hopefully) getting better at it
8. Being close to other countries and getting to travel

Cups of tea: 19

Back from Paris

Well, I'm back from Paris! It was my last weekend visiting Sarah there until who knows when. I'll be back and get to see here with friends and then my parents, but it won't be the same kinda of visit. I've loved living so close and getting to see her often and I'm sad it's ending.

I had set up posts for Saturday and Sunday; my Saturday one posted just fine, but I have no idea where my Sunday one went. Oh well, I really can't be bothered to do it again and it wasn't too interesting or important anyway, so I'll just leave things like this. I am exhausted right now and can't wait to go to sleep. I got back from Paris at 9 pm and I would probably already be in bed, but I'm skyping with my mom tonight, so I'm waiting to do that.

I really have nothing too interesting to say right now, so I'll call it a night. Maybe I'll talk about my weekend in Paris (and other visits there) in another post, but I'm too tired right now to write a good, coherent post.

Cups of tea: 18

Travelling lightly

When I left for France in September for this seven month program, I wanted to pack very lightly so that luggage-induced stress would be at a minimum. I think it's safe to say I succeeded in that area; I arrived here in France with one large suitcase, a backpack, and my purse. I'm really glad I didn't bring much with me because it's greatly reduced the stress of having to move all these possessions from country to country. The only downside, for me, has been that after these nearly 6.5 months, I've gotten very, very tired of these clothes. I've been wearing the same clothes for nearly seven months now and wow do I want to wear something else. Still, it's a very small downside to the large benefit of travelling lightly, especially when travelling in France means train stations, buses, and metros with no convenient way of lugging 50 pound suitcases around. 

There isn't too much more to say in this post except that I cannot recommend packing lightly enough for travelling in Europe. After my experience studying abroad in Grenoble (pulling a huge suitcase up to the second story of a train, up and down stairs in the Paris metro, etc.), I was dreading a similar experience. To that end, I didn't bring much and I'm so happy with that decision. I'll be happy to get back home and have more of my things to use and wear, but after nearly seven months with minimal possessions, I've also gotten very used to living minimally. I can see going down an Alex Day-esque path in that sense.

Cups of tea: 12

Off to Paris

I'm spending this weekend in Paris to go see my friend Sarah. In France, Easter Monday is a holiday, so neither of us has to work; hence, four day weekend for me! (I don't work on Fridays anyway.) France is weird and a bit hypocritical like that; they are strictly laïque (secular), but they do love celebrating their Christian holidays and having vacations for them. I'm not complaining though, I get to spend a mini vacation in Paris!

I've been lucky with my location in France, I'm just a one hour train right away from Paris on the high-speed train, so this will be my fourth weekend trip to Paris during the past six months. I've gotten to see Sarah more than I had seen here in the past five years, it's been pretty great. :) There are no big plans for the weekend so far; tonight we're going to go see The Hunger Games (in English with French subtitles!), which I'm excited for. I saw it before dubbed in French, and I've been wanting to see it in English to really get the whole experience of the actors. Besides that we haven't planned what we're doing, but I'm sure we'll find something fun.

And I'll be back in Paris in another three weeks to meet Kim, Beth, and Heather at the airport and begin our Paris/London trip!

Cups of tea: 12

Good and bad students

This will be a very quick post tonight! Despite professing my trip planning prowess in last night's post, too much trip planning still makes me crazy. And that is what has happened tonight. My mom and I just got done with a 3+ hour skype call (ahhh) during which we got nearly all our hotel/train/car planning done. She just needs to book one more hotel and the rental car and I just need to buy one more set of train tickets and it will be all set! Then we get to the really fun part of planning what we actually want to do in each city!

Anyway, today was a day that really contrasted good and bad student traits. It's interesting, one of my favorite students is also one of the students that can be the most disruptive and annoying when he's in a "I don't want to listen, I want to be the class clown" kind of mood. Normally we get along well and I guess he's a bit of the teacher's pet in my classes, but today- oh man. He started this game (along with the troublesome student in the class, I should add) where students would throw an eraser to each other while I had my back turned to write stuff on the board. They would try to get it to the other side of the class, or something like that, by the time I faced them again. Of course they probably thought I was completely oblivious to this, but It was pretty easy to figure out what was happening by the second time I turned to the chalkboard. Ohh, students, always thinking they're much sneakier than they really are. Along that same line, it's amazing how stupid students must think teachers are. Take using cellphones in class. Do students really think it's not obvious what they're doing when both their hands are under their desk and they're staring straight down into their lap? I was a student not even a year ago; I know exactly what you're doing, kids.

I generally don't like to complain about my students because, for the most part, I really like them. We generally get along well. Sometimes though... they can just be out of control and annoying. It's unfortunate that one of those such days was right near the end of my teaching experience, but the good days have outweighed the bad!

Cups of tea: 12

I am a master trip planner

If I had to narrow down the skills I've honed over the past year, especially my last six months in France, one of them would definitely be trip planning. I have gotten pretty good at it, if I may say so myself. I just got off the phone with my mom after an hour and forty-five minutes long conversation planning more of my parents' and my French roadtrip in May. It's slowly coming together and we're almost done now. It's a weird feeling because I'm used to my parents being the ones who plan things, but I think I've actually done most of the planning for this. Looking on a map and researching distances in order to figure out where to go what days, looking up train times and prices, researching hotels... I've been doing a lot of it. I'm not complaining at all, mind you; I like doing all this. I actually find the planning kinda find in some sick way. It's probably the same part of me who makes packing lists divided into different sections for each different bag and pouch I'm bringing... yupp.

Over the past few years of my first forays into trip planning I've developed a style which heavily centers around detailed schedules of plane and train times along with maps and step-by-step instructions of subway/tube or walking directions so I know exactly where we're going, how to get there, and what time we need to leave and will be arriving. I'm a worrier by nature, so I like to have every totally planned and in order so I can enjoy the vacation and relax.

It makes me think of Hermione's beaded bag in Deathly Hallows. That bag is a thing of my dreams. When I first read its description I just wished that I could have a bag like that to pack everything I might possibly need and be prepared at any time. It also reminded me of my packing list for when Kim, Beth, Heather, and I went to Florida for the opening of the Wizarding World. You can ask them, my packing list was a bit insane and highly detailed. What can I say, that's just the way I like to travel.

Something that has changed a bit during my time in France, however, is that I've gotten more lax with planning out what to do in the place where I'm going. While I'm still very big on scheduling for transportation and getting there, I don't worry so much about the itinerary for the actual vacation. When I went to Bruges with Anna, another assistant here, we only figured out where we'd like to go once we actually got to our hostel. And when Beth and I were in Amsterdam, we did plan out what we'd like to do each day, but it wasn't planned out to the hour or minute or anything like that. It may have been scheduled, but to me it felt pretty relaxed all the same.

Well, I've run out of things to talk about here. So in lieu of a conclusion: this has been a blog about my travel planning quirks.

Cups of tea: 9

The luxuries of pizza

I live in a student residence here in France and part of the deal living here is that we have to pay for a meal plan for the cafeteria. I have the smallest meal plan available: breakfast and dinner during the week. Breakfast is from 7- 8:15 am, so, of course, I have only been three or four times in the past six months. I do, however, nearly always eat dinner there in the evenings with the hall. I'm paying for it, so I should go, right? Many people, when they think of France, imagine wonderful, delicious cuisine. Well, this image of French cuisine completely crumbles under the reality of the residence's cafeteria. I could even go so far as to say that the food there shames the French national identity. I could... but should I? Eh, it depends on what they last served for dinner.

Our hall generally congregates at 6:30 to go eat dinner; so, today I got my coat on and headed out for dinner at 6:30 as usual, but found that everyone wanted to order pizza instead of eating in the caf. Yes, please! I don't think I'd had pizza for... maybe four or five months? I've gotten used to going without lots of things I took for granted in America. A couch to relax on, refrigerated milk, 24 hour shops, and also eating out. Of course there's the possibility to eat out here, we just don't get very large pay checks from our assistantships, so we don't do it that often. Suffice to say, the pizzas were delicious and were also a wonderful treat. We got five pizzas and split them between eight of us, so five slices each. I devoured four right then and there, but I still have my fifth sitting here next to me to be consumed soon. Possibly within the hour. Oh, the excitement!

In an effort to give this post a deeper topic than simply talking about pizza, I will attempt to insert a moral: Going without things makes them that much sweeter and appreciated in the end. There we go, moral accomplished.

Cups of tea: 6

BEDA minus one

It didn't occur to me that I could do BEDA (blog every day in April) until today, April 2nd, but I'm going to do it anyway. Maybe I'll make up that missed first day and maybe I won't. Maybe it will count as a sort of April Fool's thing? That works, right? Maybe? Maybe not...

I'm in my last three weeks of teaching and things have been going very well for the past couple months. I'm going to miss most of my students and it's getting a bit sad to be leaving soon, but I'm also really excited to see all my friends and family and my cat, of course. I have two trips (!) planned on this side of the Atlantic before I head by home mid-May. I'm really excited for those, but I also can't wait to be back on my couch in Michigan. I'm especially looking forward to unpacking my suitcase and not having to worry about lugging all my things around France. Even though I packed lightly, it's still a bit stressful thinking about all the stuff I have to move around here. It will be nice to be in a stable, longer-term home again.

Lots of people count things at the end of their BEDA blogs, so I think I'll try that out. If I like it, I'll continue with it. If not, it will just silently disappear as if nothing happened. Nothing to see here...

Cups of tea: 4