Relaxing Weekend
Well, it's safe to say that I have finally caught up on sleep and finally feel well rested. I did end up going out on Friday night, but that was pretty much a disaster. After a long (and unnecessary car ride) to pick up Jesse's friend at the train station (which is about 10 min. away, and we spent over an hour driving around looking for gas) and a huge group of rowdy assistants looking for a place to go out, I finally made my way home around 3 am sober, irritated and barefoot. So far, the whole night secene has been kind of a dissappointment, other than the pubs where it's nice to just hang out and visit with people; but even then I can only stay long b/c of all the smoke! The clubs just don't play music that I can get into at all, so I don't really feel like dancing, and I'm obviously not out to meet a guy either, so I may give it up for a while... we'll see.
I slept in late on Saturday and then headed to meet Jesse at the market with Zoe. It was amazing! You can seriously get ANYTHING there. All kinds of fresh produce, different types of bread (I bought a loaf of brioche, like really sweet thick bread, to make "French toast"), cheeses from all over the place, wines; I got fresh homemade pasta with an amazing red sauce. There are rabbits, pigs with the heads on... anything you could imagine. I think I will definitely go on a regular basis b/c the prices seem to be good, and there is a larger variety from our supermarkets here.
When we got back I made us French toast with the brioche and melted down raspberry jam with butter to pour on top. Not the best in terms of calories, but it was delicious and felt festive and fun for a Saturday breakfast. I was beat from a busy week and late night, so I actually went back to bed and slept until 5PM. Then we did, surprise, more cooking! Haha. There's no question that we use the little kitchen more than anyone else.
Courtney had very generously offered to lend us her laptop and DVDs to watch a movie since she was going out and we were staying in. We cuddled up in my bed and watched Girl with a Pearl Earring. I loved it! Since we'd slept all day, we weren't too tired so Jenny offered to lend us season 2 of Grey's Anatomy..... how happy did this make me? I can't even beging to say. I don't really think about TV here or miss it at all and hadn't watched anything until this weekend, but Grey's Anatomy is just soo good and I had finished season 1 on DVD just before coming here. We did that pretty much all day yesterday as well (there are 26 episodes after all!). But we did go out for a nice long walk early in the evening to see the oldest 3-mast ship in all of France; I think it's 110 years old. I took pictures, and will post them soon. It sits in the Loire, and I think you can take tours of it at certain times. I will look into that b/c it would be cool.
I had 3 hours of classes today which went really well! I met with a prof this morning just to discuss what she hopes to get out of having me here, how she would like the classes to go (it's pretty much up to me), and what amount of French is appropriate for me to use in the classroom. Up until now, I've been hesitant to use any French at all, but I think it is sometimes necessary just to clarify or explain instructions of an activity. She was really nice and offered to lend me some teaching rescourses; I'll take anything I can get! I've been invited to the head of the English dept.'s house for dinner on Sat. night and am really looking forward to that. She has a daughter who will be going to the East coast for college. I've also been invited to accompany the students to go see Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest in 2 weeks. I'm still hoping to get to Italy next week, but have to finalize the details and make sure I can still get a reasonable rate.
Things are coming together here at the school; I only had 1 problem with a room today and am slowly learning the student's names and faces. It's a lot all at once. The lesson I had planned today was a total success. It took up the full hour almost exactly, got ALL the kids to speak and seemed fun for them. Now if only I could come up with something like that every week. I gave them 3 secnarios like: "Imagine you're trapped on a desert island. You can bring one person and 3 things. Who/what would you bring and why?". I found that if you give them 5-10 min. to organize their thoughts (not write out a paragraph or even sentences to read, just thoughts and vocab) they are more able and willing to speak in front of the class. Some of them gave funny/clever responses like bringing the US president b/c they would send out a search party for him immediately. The other scenario was planning a party. I told them they could have 2 bands, food/drink, pick a location, theme etc... and again there were some creative ideas. It was fun and easy to introduce new vocabulary (such as mingling, appetizers, skateboard park).
Tonight I think we'll... gasp... watch more Grey's. I'm almost done with my book, but Zoe lent me The Life of Pi which I've been wanting to read, so at least I'll have something new. I plan on doing a more thorough search through the library one day this week just to see what's available. Love to you all, Elizabeth
I slept in late on Saturday and then headed to meet Jesse at the market with Zoe. It was amazing! You can seriously get ANYTHING there. All kinds of fresh produce, different types of bread (I bought a loaf of brioche, like really sweet thick bread, to make "French toast"), cheeses from all over the place, wines; I got fresh homemade pasta with an amazing red sauce. There are rabbits, pigs with the heads on... anything you could imagine. I think I will definitely go on a regular basis b/c the prices seem to be good, and there is a larger variety from our supermarkets here.
When we got back I made us French toast with the brioche and melted down raspberry jam with butter to pour on top. Not the best in terms of calories, but it was delicious and felt festive and fun for a Saturday breakfast. I was beat from a busy week and late night, so I actually went back to bed and slept until 5PM. Then we did, surprise, more cooking! Haha. There's no question that we use the little kitchen more than anyone else.
Courtney had very generously offered to lend us her laptop and DVDs to watch a movie since she was going out and we were staying in. We cuddled up in my bed and watched Girl with a Pearl Earring. I loved it! Since we'd slept all day, we weren't too tired so Jenny offered to lend us season 2 of Grey's Anatomy..... how happy did this make me? I can't even beging to say. I don't really think about TV here or miss it at all and hadn't watched anything until this weekend, but Grey's Anatomy is just soo good and I had finished season 1 on DVD just before coming here. We did that pretty much all day yesterday as well (there are 26 episodes after all!). But we did go out for a nice long walk early in the evening to see the oldest 3-mast ship in all of France; I think it's 110 years old. I took pictures, and will post them soon. It sits in the Loire, and I think you can take tours of it at certain times. I will look into that b/c it would be cool.
I had 3 hours of classes today which went really well! I met with a prof this morning just to discuss what she hopes to get out of having me here, how she would like the classes to go (it's pretty much up to me), and what amount of French is appropriate for me to use in the classroom. Up until now, I've been hesitant to use any French at all, but I think it is sometimes necessary just to clarify or explain instructions of an activity. She was really nice and offered to lend me some teaching rescourses; I'll take anything I can get! I've been invited to the head of the English dept.'s house for dinner on Sat. night and am really looking forward to that. She has a daughter who will be going to the East coast for college. I've also been invited to accompany the students to go see Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest in 2 weeks. I'm still hoping to get to Italy next week, but have to finalize the details and make sure I can still get a reasonable rate.
Things are coming together here at the school; I only had 1 problem with a room today and am slowly learning the student's names and faces. It's a lot all at once. The lesson I had planned today was a total success. It took up the full hour almost exactly, got ALL the kids to speak and seemed fun for them. Now if only I could come up with something like that every week. I gave them 3 secnarios like: "Imagine you're trapped on a desert island. You can bring one person and 3 things. Who/what would you bring and why?". I found that if you give them 5-10 min. to organize their thoughts (not write out a paragraph or even sentences to read, just thoughts and vocab) they are more able and willing to speak in front of the class. Some of them gave funny/clever responses like bringing the US president b/c they would send out a search party for him immediately. The other scenario was planning a party. I told them they could have 2 bands, food/drink, pick a location, theme etc... and again there were some creative ideas. It was fun and easy to introduce new vocabulary (such as mingling, appetizers, skateboard park).
Tonight I think we'll... gasp... watch more Grey's. I'm almost done with my book, but Zoe lent me The Life of Pi which I've been wanting to read, so at least I'll have something new. I plan on doing a more thorough search through the library one day this week just to see what's available. Love to you all, Elizabeth
posted by ecloern | Monday, October 16, 2006
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home