PS

There is a longer post below this one, but Donnie gave me a shoutout on his blog and I wanted to return the favor. He is using the blog to document his process as he dives into the world of animation, film editing, and computer graphic design. I think he is brilliant. He is constantly seeking feedback, so even if some of you are people who have never met him (cough*otherassistantsthismeansyou*cough) and you happen to have a free moment, I'm sure he would love to hear any thoughts you have. Or you can just go over there to check out his work. He's real good.

But don't let my admiration persuade you -- go check it out yourself! http://cabbagesandkingsanimation.blogspot.com/

'appy Sanksgeeveeng!

Y'all, I am a tired pup, but I wanted to write just to check in. My family has been here since Saturday and it has been a lovely adventure with lots of relaxation. I think I've relaxed more since they've gotten here than otherwise, since I've been in Rouen. That said, I've been getting up early to meet them for breakfast, and staying up late to plan lessons and talk to Donnie (happy 9 months, btw, my dear) and Amy (happy ... 4 years and some time, friend!). We went grocery shopping yesterday at the crazy huge grocery store LeClerc which is a short subway ride away. I kicked some kid out of his seat for my gramma to sit down -- I was pretty proud of how sassy I was. I caught the eye of some kid and glared at him, saying, "You can move for an older woman to sit down, can't you?" And he scrammed. WOO.

Our shopping trip yesterday, combined with TONS of food that Mom, Gramma, and Cameron brought in their suitcases, resulted in quite an amazing Thanksgiving Feast this evening. I had classes all day, but Gramma was hard at work in the kitchen. When I got back from class, I helped her get things ready and reheated and cleaned up and set out. Xiao Lu contributed an amazing eggplant dish, and some mushrooms that, I admit, were a little good, even though I'm quite contre mushrooms. (I even told my host mother, three years ago, that I was allergic so she wouldn't try to feed them to me. But now I've gotten over myself, a little.) Fabi made an excellent hors d'oeuvre involving bread and cheese and caramalized onions. Lisa brought a pear crumble and some really tasty "digestif" alcohols; Lauryn contributed cranberry sauce; Megan made some delish green beans with almonds. Darcy showed up with delightful lentils with goat cheese. I'm going to make that again, for sure! We had stuffing, Gram's corn bread which received rave reviews, banana bread, a rotisserie chicken, noodles, mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, plenty of wine... I am sure I'm forgetting something, but you get the idea! It was a feast!

I was so grateful to be spending such an important holiday with my family from home and my Rouennais family. I am so blessed and grateful for all my incredible friends and family.

Tomorrow, we're off to Yvetot to celebrate Thanksgiving again. Sunday, to Paris, and Monday I send my family home. I'll be following them shortly (home in 25 days from today), seeing my loves at home, and coming back for the remaining four months of my contract. Life is good. Love to you all, and I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings.

Some more things:

We got internet. I am amazing at getting what I want when it comes to internet companies. WOOT.

I had a great night tonight involving girl talk and drinking cider and eating some vaguely bad crepes.

I need to go to sleep because I am leaving for Paris in 6 hours (as in, my train leaves at 6 am and it's currently midnight) but it's okay because it means I get to see my family tomorrow.

That is that. I am a happy pup.

Some Thoughts That I've Been Having

OK. So there is some big news going on today. It is called we-got-a-washing-machine-installed-in-our-apartment-on-the-day-they-told-us-it-would-be-installed. You don't understand people (or maybe you do). This is not just big news for us, oh no. This is big news for France. France did something on time and for free? These things, individually, are quite unheard of here. I pay several euros a month to keep my bank account open. The internet got delivered weeks after we ordered it. Etc. But for the machine to be delivered not only on time but EARLIER than they had promised, and for us to not pay a single cent to make it happen... Let's just say this is nothing short of a miracle. And we are already taking advantage of said miracle by washing our two dish towels, the towel from the bathroom, my two towels, and Rebekah's one towel. That's all there is room for but wow, aren't we extravagant?

In other news, still no internet. It would be nice if it comes by tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath. (See above.)

In other other news, I have been a lucky duck and received several delightful letters in the mail. Thanks Hannah and Max!

And otherwise, I am set for life because I just returned 'arry Potter 3 to the library, and grabbed the fourth book: 'arry Potter et la Coupe de Feu. (They don't actually drop the H of Harry in the book but you would never know it for how the Francies say it. It's a little cute but don't they KNOW?!)

Boop ba doop.

3 days until my family gets here. 34 days until I'm home for Christmas. 77 days until Donnie gets here. These are all great numbers. I can totally handle those numbers. I don't even want to think about how many days until I leave Rouen because I can assure you that number is smaller than I would like it to be. Beurk.



This picture is of me and Xiao Lu when we went to the beach at Fecamp. Aren't we way cute/romantic? (Also, if you click on the picture to make it real big, you can see the dude who was SWIMMING that day wearing only a Speedo. It's not the Speedo that shocked me, it's the fact that I was standing there, completely NOT in the water, completely bundled up in my Gram-coat and my Amy-scarf and I was freezing. Zees French, I tell you...)

Class today

Well, today, I had two classes with Christophe, my contact teacher. We did the same exercise in both classes: the kids had the scenario that they were shipwrecked (Cherubs, holla!) on a desert island and they had to create a constitution for their new civilization. But, see, to get them to understand this without speaking French required a lot of gestures and a lot of ... French. Oops.

Anyways, once the kids got what was going on, they had to create two lists. One list was for what each type of person had to do, and the other was for what they could do. For example, "the men have to gather wood, the women have to make the clothes, the children have to build a house in the trees." (these are all real responses, so please don't mind the gendered nature of my examples. I figured getting all feminist on them and challenging the gender roles they created in a language they wouldn't understand anyway would be a little pointless...)

But then they got to create a list of things the people COULD do. "Children could go swimming," for example. But then they said, "The old men could drink. If they can find alcohol." And then, "The old women could smoke. A pipe."

I love French teenagers.

Post written last night and saved to my USB key and copied into blogger now.

I am writing in my bedroom on my pathetic little computer without internet. Turns out we will have no internet until Thursday afternoon at the latest. I am actually fine with this, except that it makes my life more difficult when it comes to talking to my family and to Donnie and Amy.

But anyhow, as a result, I am being more productive. I didn't end up doing everything I set out to do today, but I ended up drinking a bottle of wine with Rebekah and talking about... who knows what, really... Politics, our respective high school experiences, movies, etc. It was nice. And for the first time basically since we got internet a month and a half ago, I watched my favorite French show, "Ne M'liminez Pas!" and the subsequent Wheel of Fortune with the dude and the barbie and the dog. I'm quite a fan. And tonight, there was an older man on it, and I thought of Grandpa and how he and I loved to try to guess the words and I always wished he had been on it because he would have kicked butt, and then, would you know it, the contestant's name was Roger. I don't know if I believe in destiny, per se, but I felt like I was meant to watch tonight's episode.

And then, Rebekah joined me and some movie came on with Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis (help?) but we muted it and just talked and the movie was very funny without volume. And we talked through the entire movie and then Fabi came home and joined us and we talked about other things and some opera came on in the background.

That is what I wanted to write about. My roommates seemed unenthused regarding the movie/opera. I deduced from watching it for a few moments with sound that it was German and somehow related to Moses, I think. Also, there was a cow that they wrote "Gott" (God) on, and then the next scene had everyone lying around in bikinis with blood over their entire bodies. I thought the staging was superb and very original and I loved the use of the few props onstage at any given time. I felt like such a dorky theatre major, reveling in all these theatrical details, but it's those times when my education feels like it did something, or something. Anyways, I was kind of obsessed with this opera, whatever it was. Also, the main dude reminded me of Henson in King Lear back in the day.

So now I'm off to study French. And then talk to Donnie (finally) because he is now on his way home from work. Ahhh the sacrifices you make for love. (Sorry.) (authors note: Donnie gets home at 1:30 am my time. I am dedicated.)

What a good night. I think I'm going to reflect on how I can incorporate this newfound productivity once we get internet back. I'm thinking along the lines of a "no internet after x pm except to talk to people" kind of rule but the thing is, usually when I talk to people, it only happens because I am already online when they log on. Maybe a solution would be to create more specific Skype dates with people, instead of haphazardly beginning to talk. Oh, I don't know, that sounds like a terrible idea as well. Anyone have any suggestions of how I can be a citizen of the 21st century and also lead a productive life?

Once again, Orange is the worst thing ever.

Our internet has been down for over 24 hours, with no end in sight, really. Actually, I don't know. I called Orange but I was in the middle of the phone call when I had to go to class, so Fabi took over for me and I went to classes. So I do not know the current situation of our internet and phone line. But, since I am in France, and given the history we have had with Orange, I'm not holding my breath. So anyways, in case there is not internet when I get back, I stopped in the Salle des Profs to use the internet here. Good thing because I had a lot of important documents to analyze in my email (I'm looking at you, Amy and Donnie, the two people who accounted for 5 emails in my inbox. And only one of them was from Donnie...)

Blah. I'm going to go home and do some things. Among which include: make the pumpkin recipe that Lena and I made in Germany but with soy cream this time because France is the best! (except for when it comes to internet and pumpkin puree but that's another story); study some French [turns out I speak French that is riddled with errors, lacking subjunctive when it should be there, adding it in when it shouldn't, forgetting words that I once knew, etc... so while Donnie is studying his heart out in Tolono, I am going to study here. Group effort, booyah!]; and continue cleaning my room a bit. It is SO much better than it was before. But I still have a few organized piles throughout my room that need some attention, and then I'm going to sweep and mop, and clean my sink. And also, my family is coming here in SIX DAYS so I need to get some Christmas presents wrapped and ready to send home with them. Woohoooooo!

Over and out, homie Gs.

Note: upon revision, this post has about as many brackets, parentheses, and semi-colons as my oral French has errors. Eat your hearts out, because I like 'em. Especially semi-colons.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMMA!

Happy 75th birthday, Iris!!!!!!!


November 14th is a good day.

Gramma, thanks for being the best grandmother in the world. Nothing beats your hugs or your banana bread muffins. I am so lucky to know you and be related to you. Thank you for everything you have done for me and all the love you've shared with me and taught me. I love you so much, and I can't wait to show you around Rouen, and I can't wait to show you off to everyone here. One week til you get here!

An Interesting Teaching Day

Just a few thoughts. I've finally (as of Monday), really, genuinely started teaching classes. I go to my classes and the teacher either works with me in class, or he/she sends me into another classroom with 3-6 students. I've done a fairly even mix of the two, thus far.

On Monday, I did an activity where I gave each kid a celebrity, but they didn't know who the celebrity was. They had to ask their classmates yes/no questions until they figured it out. Basically, it was "Who am I?" Prior to class, I had cut out pictures of Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, Leo DiCaprio, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Barack Obama, his hottie wife, Michael Jackson, Hallie Berry, etc... Turns out I did a good job. Because when I would show the kids which famous personality they would have to help their classmate guess, they would all go "Oohhh, ahhhh!" Or in the case of Michael Jackson or Britney Spears, they would all laugh and act all embarrassed that someone was them. (In MJ's case, they thought it was funny that they had to be someone who was dead; in Britney's, they thought it was funny that they had to be someone who was crazy.)

The activity went really well. The few kids who were standoffish at the beginning were some of the ones who got most involved and excited. I was pleased with it. What was interesting to me, though, was that the first two questions each kid asked (in both groups) were inevitably: "Is it a woman?" and "Is she/he black?" They didn't ask about whiteness first, and if the answer to being black was "no" they assumed that the person was white. I was bummed that I didn't include more diverse celebrities but I literally went through my People magazine page by page and cut out the people I knew they would recognize. [Also interesting: when the kid who was being Michael Jackson asked the race question, the kids didn't know what to answer. Half of them said yes and half of them said no. Then one kid stammered out, "Een ze beginning, 'e eez black. But, een ze later times, 'e become white."

My brain is tired now because I had a full day, even though I didn't actually do very much. So, though I would love to write a doctoral dissertation on the thoughts regarding these young, impressionable minds and their relationship with race, I think that will have to come another time.

But a note to myself/other assistants who might read this and want to try the activity: Other celebrity ideas could be Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mouse, George Bush, Lindsay Lohan. And if you wanted to be more complicated and involve other things, you could include the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building... Anyone have other ideas of things the kids would recognize/be able to describe?

Also, in one class that had a lower level of English, I did this but didn't make them use yes or no questions, so they weren't as put on the spot. So the one standing, trying to guess, could say things like, "What is my job?" And they would answer "actor," or, "President of the United States." That last one sure didn't take long... but the kids had fun with it.

Soon: a post about how I found an apartment, bought a futon, and cleaned my room.

"I Don't Want to Live on the Moon"

A fellow assistant and bloggy friend posted this video in honor of Sesame Street's 40th birthday, which Google has been honoring all week. Anyways, I thought I'd repost this specific video because it was one of my favorites, and I think it rings especially true now. I am so so so glad I am visiting France, and even living here for a bit, but just like oysters aren't good enough of a family for Ernie, cheese and wine isn't enough for me either.

And then, because I can't get over the idea that I am in any capacity dating someone who hates Elmo, I am posting a video in which he is so cute and helpful. How can anyone not like this?!

Simplifying my life...

I woke up this morning tired and stressed -- I needed to take a shower, I slept 20 minutes longer than I needed to, my room is a MESS, and I had to leave the house to go somewhere I've never been before, which always stresses me out. I had an appointment at 10 am today to go see a clic clac (which is, in this case, a futon couch/bed deal that I'm looking at for when Donnie comes here). The woman's house is on the other side of town in a vaguely sketchy neighboorhood (during the day it's fine though) and I have to take the metro to get there, and then walk for a ways. I am really bad at following directions, and I always try to leave at least twice as much time as I need to find a place. Murphy's law - if I leave way early, I get there way early, but if I leave with just enough time to get there, I'm inevitably really late. And today, I had just enough time to get there. I spent a while on google maps looking for landmarks that could help me find my way but I ultimately was going to be a little late. Which I hate more than most things.

So I called her and (little white lies are okay from time to time, right?) told her that I was called in to teach at 10 am, and could we reschedule? So I'm going to go there Friday when I am not teaching at all -- I have the whole day free to do whatever I want, which will hopefully be seeing the clic clac. And now, with these extra almost-three hours that I wasn't anticipating, I am going to clean my room and organize and file some paperwork. BOOYAH.

I've been giving Donnie a hard time lately about how much he takes on and I realized I was doing the same thing -- teaching 5 lessons yesterday, 4 lessons today, going on a day trip tomorrow (to the coastal town of Fécamp with Fabi to get some Benedictine and visit the Palais Benedictine), and 7 lessons on Thursday plus babysitting, and trying to look at a clic clac?!? It was too much. So, simplification and purging. DONE.

Now I am going to open my windows and let some sun in, put on Tracy Chapman, and clean this room up. Bisous.

Goodbye Germany, Hello Real World*

Well, I don't have much to say except that, once again, my room is a mess, I'm starting classes again tomorrow, I unintentionally bought nine euros of cheese at the market today, I'm attempting to stick to this new budget I created for myself, aaaaaand my family is coming here in 12 days. Wow!

Also, on my way back from market, I met a cat who let me pet him and it was lovely. And there is this guy Damien who cooks for the school cafeteria and he has a dog who I sometimes get to pet as well. I think the dog's name is Bibou.

So now I need to lesson plan and clean and cook some food for myself because I am HONGRY. I bought some instant pancake mix at the grocery store yesterday for 94 centimes. I'm wary, but I'll give it a shot.

Sorry I haven't uploaded any more pictures in a while -- I've been taking them, but life is a bit busy at the mo'.

Oh also, as I was walking home from a bar last night, these guys walking behind me were arm-in-arm, singing and kind of beat boxing at the top of their lungs. The song was something about... freedom, I think. It was nice.



*Real World like, my life in Rouen, not the really bad MTV show that I secretly have watched a lot of.

American food in France

OK, so I am reposting this for a few reasons. One, I could potentially win a 40€ gift basket, and two, I am thoroughly interested in and impressed with this marketing strategy. For most of us bloggers, there are at least a few people who read our blogs who also live in France. Granted, I am pretty sure most of my readers (Can I even say readers if there are three of them? Hi Mom and Amy and Donnie! Oh, and Gramma even though she doesn't comment on here, and Aunt Christy Gram? Ok, maybe more than two, but still...)

Anyways, what better than a contest to get some free advertisement out there to people who will actually use it and look at it? It's also really interesting, for those of you in America, to be able to look at what food isn't readily available in France. I know I looked at this exact site before I left to know what food to bring in my suitcase!

I haven't ordered from them yet, but I certainly am going to someday, once I run out of the mac n' cheese and peanut butter I've brought from home! So, yes, check it out if you're interested. :)

Win a 40–euro gift basket of your favorite American treats!


Are you struggling to satisfy your cravings because you are:
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Good luck and happy blogging!

Hey Germany, I like you!

So, I'm still in Germany and it's getting better all the time. Thanks to Herr W, my German teacher for one year in high school, I can ... stumble my way through life here. At night, hanging out with Lena's friends, I make a fool of myself and attempt to speak German, but they seem to enjoy it and I always get complimented on my German, but only after Lena tells them how little I took and how long ago it was. Oh well.

Today, I ate fries with curry ketchup (which is amazing, btw), and mayonnaise and fresh onions. It was delightful but I kind of felt like I was going to barf afterwards. I basically wanted more curry ketchup and less mayo but it was very tasty so it's alright.

I also found some Vitamin C tablets that are a lot like Alka Seltzer but they taste way better. Except, now that I think about it, I have never consumed Alka Seltzer so I don't really know-- I just feel like they must be gross, right? But these tablets, oh these, they make a pink drink so it should taste like pink lemonade, on would think, but it doesn't! No, it tastes like orange, which I prefer anyways! I don't know why, but I have not been able to find Vit. C anywhere in France, not even at the natural/bio stores. Once I found it and it was 80 some euros for one bottle. Nuh uh, bio store, I am not paying YOU that much money!

So anyways, now I have 20 rolls of these tablets, and each roll has 20 vitamin c tablets in it. Oops. I think I need an intervention. But please don't intervene, actually, because I am quite content to have paid 45 cents for each one. I consider it a steal!

Oh hey, I'm in Germany.

After many many hours of train travel and hanging out in various cities (Paris, Köln [which turns out is the same thing as Cologne -- who knew?]), I have made it to Bonn, Germany. People here seem to be nice enough and willing to put up with my very minimal German. And a lot of them speak English too. Phew. I am sitting in a bagel café called Bagel Brothers Sandwich Restaurant. After haltingly ordering and paying for my Caprese bagel (it's amazing-- fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil, and balsamic vinaigrette on a parmesean/onion bagel), the guy at the register congratulated me. I guess it was a grand success. All five words of German that I shouted at him. But at least the language that I'm slipping into, when lacking a German word, is French. My foreign language/country brain is on? Bah, I don't know. It's an adventure at the very least.

I've been taking notes throughout the day on all these funny/weird experiences I've had. So I guess I'll copy them down:

Today, everyone has something very special about them. I am noticing smiles, walks, hands. How good.

I just met some Americans from Florida who are doing a post-college world tour. I told them about a cheaper place to buy coffee in the train station.

Also, today, everyone I see looks like someone from home. Guess it's little reminders that I'm not alone.

*The next page in my journal is a post-it note from Xiao Lu that she put on my door, saying she was sorry she couldn't get up at 6 am to send me off and that she will miss me. I love her.

A man-boy working at the café in the Paris Nord train station tried to tell me that there was no caffeine in tea -- and he didn't have decaf coffee available. I just wanted to take a nap later, people. Sorry 'bout it. But I found a table to sit at anyways, even though I hadn't bought something. The previous person had left their meal trash there, adn there was a used tea cup, which I was first grumpy about but didn't do anything about it. But a new girl started working and told me I couldn't sit there if I wasn't a customer and I pointed at the used cup on my table. "Mais, non..." JOKES ON THEM, SUCKAS. Too bad you didn't have any herbal tea or I *would* have been a customer!

The woman behind me on the train from Brussels to Cologne is doing flash cards for art or something and she keeps deeply sighing when, I assume, she gets something wrong. The couple across the aisle (who keeps making out and then looking at me because I'm accidentally staring at them) and I keep making faces about her.

In other news, I brought some stickers with me so I can write letters, and some of them got all wrapped up around my writing utensils. So now I have a pencil covered in hearts, and a Busey Bank pen with a parrot on it.

I also made a list of things I have spent my money on today:
-1€20 - sweet green tea in vending machine at Paris Nord which I drank at the café that didn't have anything decaf. I know green tea isn't decaf, but it's lesscaf, and it's got them antioxidants, so that's good at least.
-0€50 - in Paris St. Lazare to use the restroom facilities -- peeing is expensive here!
-3€00 - in Cologne for my first soy starbucks latte since America. And it was good.
-3€20 - in Paris for two metro tickets (round trip, since I'll also be taking the metro on Friday)
-0€80 CHRISTMAS SURPRISE
-3€20 - Caprese bagel at Bagel Brothers Sandwich Restaurant (+ internet and bathroom!)


Anyways, I'm off to go meet Lena now. Wish me luck in finding her -- I guess it's supposed to be easy but turns out I don't understand what the signs mean here. Oops!

Hope everyone is doing wonderfully today!

Note: There is some epic music up in this cafe. I think it was popular in the USA in the early '00s.

Off to Germany...!

Well, as per usual, I am up very late the night before traveling as I attempt to get my life together. It is 2:30 am and I am waking up in 4 hours to get to the train station for a train that leaves at 8 am.

But I'm very excited and I have a lot of train riding to do tomorrow, so hopefully I'll take a good nap. And then a few days with Lena who is just plain great.

OK, bedtime. I'll update from Germany, if I have a chance, and of course I'll take a million photos! Woohoo!

Oh

Oh what a dreary, rainy day it is today. But something has changed about my outlook-- I am now a little bit (admittedly forcedly) poetic about the rain. So I suited up (with my super amazing boots that have still not let me down in the rain, my rain coat from Gram, and my pretty green umbrella, and a scarf around my neck because I'm attempting desperately to ward off this cold that is trying to get me). And I went outside. I walked to the market and picked up the scraps that no one wanted from the vendors as they were closing down. No sunflowers today, but I did find some pretty yellow flowers that will brighten up the room all the same.

My plan for the rest of the day includes: toasting at then eating the pain au chocolat that I bought for myself, and creating some kind of dinner involving onions. I'm thinking megadarrah/mujadarrah (Caitlin, do you read this?) because that would be pretty tasty. Except I don't have lentils but I have rice and onions and plain yogurt, so that's almost everything. And, other than eating all day, I am going to drink some tea -I bought a loose tea that is cherry and ginger flavored- and upload pictures to my blog and to facebook.

Ready, Set, GO.

An Epiphany that has nothing to do with France but rather food

Just a moment ago, I was writing about sushi because last night for dinner, I treated myself to some AMAZING avocado-ginger sushi from this really nice Japanese restaurant. And it was delightful. I was having a particularly wonderful day, in which I got to pet a cat and go to the fair (blog post to follow) so I got some sushi to make the day even better.

But that made me think about how sushi (and other nice things) are treats for when something is going well and also for when something is going the opposite of well, aka quite poorly. I think it's nice that rewards are not exclusively for good behavior, but also to help perk up a day. And it's nice that that perk can come in a little container that costs 4€50 and tastes like ... something really good.

Simple pleasures...

Pictures from my birthday!

A letter in which I express my frustration with my current financial situation:

Dear France,

I would very much like to get paid soon, if you don't mind. I hope all is well with you; the strikes seem to have calmed down, so that's nice, right? Anyhow, if you could deposit some money in my bank account at your earliest possible convenience, I would be forever grateful. It would be nice to have more than 10€ in there at some point in my life.

Yours truly,
KCorn



In other news, I have literally done NOTHING lately.  I am on vacation and need to do something.  So today, I took a shower (impressive, I know), put on some make-up, and I'm going to go into town and ... I don't know what.  Not spend any money, certainly, but otherwise, the sky's the limit.  I might plop down in a café somewhere and study some French because all of a sudden, I am at a loss when it comes to conjugating verbs in the present tense.  It's bad.   Anyways, wish me luck on this voyage from the apartment.  It's a scary world out there, kids, but someone's got to do it.

To sum it up:

I don't quite know where to begin, but I had an incredible birthday and everyone here in Rouen, and at home in Urbana, and in Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas (thanks for the fudge, Aunt Jean!), made my birthday absolutely lovely.  I rang in my birthday on Skype in a twenty-million person conference call.  Literally, my mom, brother, and gramma were all on one computer, Donnie and occasionally his mom, brother, and dad were on another, Gram (Donnie's grandma) hopped on her computer towards the end, and Amy all the way from Pennsylvania.  It was so wonderful, and we all talked for over an hour.  On the call, I opened a present from Amy and it was real real good.  There were some socks and some things that only Amy and I think are funny.  Which was nice.  Then I went to sleep and slept in until around 1, I think.  And I cleaned the apartment a bit, went with Fabi to the grocery store and the post office.  The post office was an adventure and this woman next to me in line told me that some of the people who were sending packages must have been socialists because only socialists send packages because they are government officials.  (?)  After waiting in line for half an hour or more, I picked up my package from mom (who is clearly a government official/socialist. duh.) and went back to the school where two more packages were waiting for me.

I skyped with various people (thanks for the iTunes gc, Hillary!) and Donnie gave me a concert (see previous post).  Then the roomies and several others went out for dinner at this really yummy Indian restaurant, Rebekah (my American roommate) and her friend treated me for dinner which was super super nice, and then we all went back to our apartment.  Lots of people came over, Lisa (the other assistant, not my mom's friend this time) made cookies, and I kind of made an instant cake.  All quite tasty.  Then we went out to a bar, I kind of fell asleep, and Rebekah and I left at 3 am.  The others went out dancing til 5:30.  Guess I'm getting old, because I just couldn't do it...  :)

Anyways, it was really a wonderful day and I was so happy to share that day with so many great people, both in person and far far away. 

And now I'm off to get cleaned up, run to the grocery store, and go to a dinner party thing this evening at one of my teacher's.  Until the next time!  (And don't forget to check out all the new photos I've uploaded in the posts below.)

Photo-a-Day: Oct 23

I really wish this screen shot had turned out better (I was rather distracted), and I hope Donnie will forgive me for bragging about him like this, but I truly have the best boyfriend in the world.  For my birthday, he played me a concert of amazing, romantic songs that have special meaning to us (the Beatles, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Alanis Morissette).  And he's learned to play them since I left for France.  I don't have words adequate to express how talented he is, and how lucky I am.

Photo-a-Day: Oct 22

This is one of the sweetest stories -- in class on Thursday morning (Oct 22, the day before my birthday), the teacher told everyone to sit down, but one girl kept standing.  The teacher said, Please sit down.  But she kept standing.  "Please, I 'ave somesing fohr Kinzie."  And she continued to tell me that the class pooled their money and put it together to buy me macaroons, and then they all sang (in English!).  It was so lovely -- they remembered from the week before, that it was my birthday the next day.  I am a lucky duck, and it was a wonderful beginning to a several day long birthday celebration.  I think teaching is for me.

Photo-a-Day: Oct 21

I treated myself to a dance concert at the opera house in Rouen.  It was a group called Europa Dance, a troupe comprised of 18-20 year olds, and they put on a show called Drôle de Danse.  It really reminded me of some of the November Dance concerts at U of I, in that the dancers were really creative with the props and their bodies and it was good.

Photo-a-Day: Oct 20

On this glorious, glorious day, Rebecca came to visit me!  She and I were in the same program at the U of I and she's doing an amazing, epic European tour right now.  We had a wonderful time catching up and walking around Rouen.  We even found Murphy's (which is apparently in Rouen and not on Green St.) and had to take a picture of it for our Urbana peeps.  Thanks again for visiting, Rebecca!  What a lovely visit it was.  Highlights include: cooking, polishing off a bottle of wine, doing candle, and drinking coffee in a café and watching the rain out the window.  How good.