Another Week Down
So, it's a new Monday and I don't really even know where last week went. It just flew by! No kids for my Monday morning class again (last week or today), so that's a pretty easy start to my week. On Tuesdays I only have class from 8-10, and it's really nice to get up early and then have the rest of the day to do what I please; I honestly don't know what I did. I think I just walked around town and did some grocery shopping. We were supposed to have another reunion/orientation in La Roche Sur Yon on Wed. (which is about a 2 hour train ride from Nantes), but there was a grève (strike) with the trains, so we couln't get there. We were just devistated (not quite, since the first one was a joke!). So, this gave me 2 days off in a row, which seems rediculous, but I'm not about to complain. I think I work on average 9 out of the 12 hours per week; last week I worked 6!!
On Thurs. Jesse and I decided to venture out at night. I had wanted to check out this place called Tex Mex, which is a free club/bar that has dancing. Yeah.... too bad all the kids were about 15-18. Seriously. I guess there is something to be said for having age restrictions on clubs like we do at home; it's just not fun for us, and I feel really REALLY old. Plus, don't they have school in the morning? It was a Thurs. night. I just don't get it.
So, since we had made the effort to go out, we tried another place called 911. This ended up being my favorite place we've been so far. It's themed after NYPD, which is a little odd to me, perhaps even capitalizing on the events of 911, but the bouncer was really nice, they had a great live musician, it was a good crowd, and smoke was down to a minimum. It's also an oxygen bar (We have these in SF too), but the idea of paying for pure oxygen and then being in a bar filled with smoke when you're done with your tank just seems stupid to me. Anyways, Jesse and I had a great time, and didn't end up getting back until 3am.
Oh, I forgot on Thurs. I had been invited to accompany some English classes to see The Importance of Being Earnest. It was very well done, the performance was just for our school, and it was really nice to see some of the profs outside of the classroom and socialize a little bit with them; they are all very energetic and so nice. When I was there, Sophie invited me to her house for dinner (crepes) on Friday night, so of course I did that. It was great to have a night full of speaking only French. I got back just after midnight and then met up with friends to go out to another club called Quai West b/c Zoe had some free passes. WOW! This ended up being interesting to say the least.
There was a long line, so we joined in. Again, the kids looked like immature 8th graders! There was a group of thugish boys in front of us (literally one of them had braces and probably weighed 80 lbs). They started talking trash to us saying we are in France (duh!) and should be speaking French. Sadly, my current impression of the French is that they are quite racist- and proud of it to boot. We explained that we do speak French but when we're in a group of only English speakers, we speak English to one another. This went on and on for a while, and I was very quickly fed up and just waited in scilence. Jesse was pretty worked up (b/c we get comments like this quite a bit, not to mention that my French is probably 10,000 times better than their English ever will be). At one point he said something rude and she replied with our classic and beloved phrase JE NE CARE PAS! Haha. I loved it. Then their little girlfrieds cut in front of us (another classic French move)!!! Normally, I'm quite passive, but we made a remark about the line starting around the corner, not that they cared. When more people came to cut (by now we'd been waiting 20 min. to get in), I finally said it wasn't ok.
Little trampy girl: Eeey ça va!! Ils sont avec nous. (Hey it's cool. They're with us).
Moi: Eh, no ça va pas! Vous avez deja coupés. (Uhh, no it's not cool. You've already cut).
In the end karma won out and they weren't let in b/c they didn't have IDs. We had to laugh at this one. Once inside, we had fun. They were playing fun music like Grease, old-school Michael Jackson and.... the Pointer Sisters. I thought that was a little random, but everyone danced. We didn't stay for too long b/c the music quickly turned to house, but it was a fun outing nonetheless.
Saturday was a holiday (Armistice Day, I think) and I didn't do anything. I've been going non-stop since getting back from Italy, and it finally caught up with me. Yesterday I cleaned my entire room, did laundry, did some lesson planning, and went on a great 2.5 hour walk along the Loire, over the little island, and into the woods with Jesse and Zoe; this seems to be our Sunday afternoon tradition, and I like it. Tonight is the first night of Yoga! It's an hour and a half class, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm off to teach now. Bisous, Elizabeth
On Thurs. Jesse and I decided to venture out at night. I had wanted to check out this place called Tex Mex, which is a free club/bar that has dancing. Yeah.... too bad all the kids were about 15-18. Seriously. I guess there is something to be said for having age restrictions on clubs like we do at home; it's just not fun for us, and I feel really REALLY old. Plus, don't they have school in the morning? It was a Thurs. night. I just don't get it.
So, since we had made the effort to go out, we tried another place called 911. This ended up being my favorite place we've been so far. It's themed after NYPD, which is a little odd to me, perhaps even capitalizing on the events of 911, but the bouncer was really nice, they had a great live musician, it was a good crowd, and smoke was down to a minimum. It's also an oxygen bar (We have these in SF too), but the idea of paying for pure oxygen and then being in a bar filled with smoke when you're done with your tank just seems stupid to me. Anyways, Jesse and I had a great time, and didn't end up getting back until 3am.
Oh, I forgot on Thurs. I had been invited to accompany some English classes to see The Importance of Being Earnest. It was very well done, the performance was just for our school, and it was really nice to see some of the profs outside of the classroom and socialize a little bit with them; they are all very energetic and so nice. When I was there, Sophie invited me to her house for dinner (crepes) on Friday night, so of course I did that. It was great to have a night full of speaking only French. I got back just after midnight and then met up with friends to go out to another club called Quai West b/c Zoe had some free passes. WOW! This ended up being interesting to say the least.
There was a long line, so we joined in. Again, the kids looked like immature 8th graders! There was a group of thugish boys in front of us (literally one of them had braces and probably weighed 80 lbs). They started talking trash to us saying we are in France (duh!) and should be speaking French. Sadly, my current impression of the French is that they are quite racist- and proud of it to boot. We explained that we do speak French but when we're in a group of only English speakers, we speak English to one another. This went on and on for a while, and I was very quickly fed up and just waited in scilence. Jesse was pretty worked up (b/c we get comments like this quite a bit, not to mention that my French is probably 10,000 times better than their English ever will be). At one point he said something rude and she replied with our classic and beloved phrase JE NE CARE PAS! Haha. I loved it. Then their little girlfrieds cut in front of us (another classic French move)!!! Normally, I'm quite passive, but we made a remark about the line starting around the corner, not that they cared. When more people came to cut (by now we'd been waiting 20 min. to get in), I finally said it wasn't ok.
Little trampy girl: Eeey ça va!! Ils sont avec nous. (Hey it's cool. They're with us).
Moi: Eh, no ça va pas! Vous avez deja coupés. (Uhh, no it's not cool. You've already cut).
In the end karma won out and they weren't let in b/c they didn't have IDs. We had to laugh at this one. Once inside, we had fun. They were playing fun music like Grease, old-school Michael Jackson and.... the Pointer Sisters. I thought that was a little random, but everyone danced. We didn't stay for too long b/c the music quickly turned to house, but it was a fun outing nonetheless.
Saturday was a holiday (Armistice Day, I think) and I didn't do anything. I've been going non-stop since getting back from Italy, and it finally caught up with me. Yesterday I cleaned my entire room, did laundry, did some lesson planning, and went on a great 2.5 hour walk along the Loire, over the little island, and into the woods with Jesse and Zoe; this seems to be our Sunday afternoon tradition, and I like it. Tonight is the first night of Yoga! It's an hour and a half class, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm off to teach now. Bisous, Elizabeth
posted by ecloern | Monday, November 13, 2006
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