Holiday Cheer

The holiday season is quickly upon us, in fact, its everywhere. I wrapped a string of white lights around my banister a few weeks ago and since then winter has come with full force. Fortunately, there are many bright sides to the rapid approach to balance out the frigidly cold weather in Paris.
First, I have to mention Thanksgiving. I approached this lesson with my classes in a few different ways. In some, i gave them a brief article explaining Thanksgiving and had them write and perform skits. This was a complete failure in all but two classes, who chose to embrace the activity with enthusiastic, if slightly racist, portrays of Pilgrims and Indians. For the rest, I blended a worksheet about Thanksgiving with games--which tended to hold their interest more. For the actual holiday, I had two young and excitable visitors to Paris, my lovely hostess from Rome and k.fort's little sister, Melissa and her friend Hillary. We went to dinner at a cafe where I enjoyed poulet roti et pomme frites... not quite turkey and dad's mashed potatoes, but it worked. I then had the pleasure of playing Parisian tour guide, which brought me back to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysses, St. Germain des-Pres, a fondue restaurant, Notre dame and Sainte Chapelle--most of which I've forgone since settling into my life as a Parisian resident.
On Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend, I was invited to the suburbs for a Thanksgiving feast chez Matheny--wonderful family friends of my roommate who have been watching over our little group of American Assistants. It felt so nice to be in the company of Americans, eat such delicious and familiar food.
The holiday fun continued later that night when, at a bar with my friends, I looked outside and saw fat snowflakes falling down. We all then proceeded to run outside and dance in the snow, creating this little scene:
This past weekend, three of my friends and I ventured to Amsterdam to continue the holiday cheer. In the 36 hours that I spent in the city, we went to Christmas markets, photographed a traditional dutch windmill, gazed upon light-strewn streets, ate schwarma (as promised to one Stewart L), waffles and tons of delicious Dutch Christmas candies.
This week, I will accompany my friends on a walking tour of Parisian Christmas markets and displays. My roommate and I will venture to the Germanic border town of Strasbourg next weekend. In spite of myself, all this holiday cheer has made me even more anxious to come home and actually celebrate the holidays with my friends and family. I feel so lucky to be able to come back, even for just a short visit.
Sending all my love! Can't wait to see you soon.
Gros Bisous,
Betsy

Fragments

- It snowed in Paris today. Actual flakes came down from the sky. Now it is just raining, but I'm sitting by the window at a cafe where I steal internet and its rather chilly. Either way, the snow was pretty exciting. I also watched O Brother Where Art Thou this morning which I had never seen before. I know I'm not the first to say it, but hot damn the Coen brothers are amazing.

- I went to a friend's party Friday night. It was a fake engagement party for my friends Leah and Brad. A whole lot of silliness and debauchery ensued, and my red sparkled hat was lost in the battle. There are some photos posted on facebook like this one:
(photo cred: C.Cooper)
these are some of my friends. I like them.

- Classes are going well on the whole. There was a strike on Thursday so some of my classes were canceled. They are cutting the numbers of teachers in the schools by the thousands and people are unhappy. When the French get unhappy, they strike. They do that often.

- I am applying to graduate school. My applications are due soon and therefore I am getting rather anxious. I finally finished a full draft of my personal statement this weekend. However, in the 2 hours I've spent since I finished it, I have decided to scrap the whole thing and start over. It was a useful exercise, but not really what I wanted to say. For the next few weeks I will spend most of my free time trying to write an adequate personal statement.

- My lovely hostess from Rome will be coming to Paris this weekend with a friend... so I expect next weekend to be a rather active one. I imagine we'll do a fair bit of bar-hopping, sight-seeing and shopping, so this weekend was a much calmer one than average in anticipation for Melissa's visit.

- Thanksgiving is coming up this week--so I hope you all have a wonderful day stuffed full of turkey! I imagine I'll be celebrating with a few assistants somewhere, or going out to a tasty dinner when Melissa arrives. I haven't made definite plans yet. I'm a bit sad to not be home for the holiday, but will be back for Christmas and am really looking forward to that.

- Speaking of Christmas, I finally have a definite itinerary and plane tickets. I will arrive in New York City on the evening of December 22nd, hosted by the beautiful MGG, then will go to Boston the following afternoon. I will remain in Boston from the 23rd-30th when I will go to Atlanta for New Years! I leave for Paris from Atlanta on the 3rd, so hopefully I'll be able to see as many of you as possible in my time at home!

oh hey guys

Because I'm horrible and can't remember to update, here is a video post!

Head of Skate

Hilarious, and yet quite frightening:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1831461
Also, there are finally some photos on my flickr site for your viewing pleasure.

Teaching, or finding my hidden stern face

I spent the last couple of weeks finally teaching my own classes, and while I initially thought the pleasure of returning to a classroom would mask any tension or potential embarrassment, I found myself hopelessly over my head.
To be fair, I didn't have any major disciplinary issues and managed to keep everyone in the class and sitting in their seats for the most part, so that was a success. Keeping them interested and forcing them to engage in a class conducted entirely in English is quite another story.
I began each of my classes the same way-- making them play two truths and a lie, which on the whole went pretty well. Each student had to write three sentences about themselves, two true one not and present it. Then, the rest of the class voted on which statement was false. Given that they all have all their classes together, most lies were caught pretty easily. And, most students didn't quite understand that they were trying to trick their classmates, but at least they all spoke. Being the sneaky fool that I am, I managed to convince them all that my family is Morroccan--which I found to be incredibly entertaining given how horribly my French is progressing.
Then, in most of my classes, I moved onto presenting the US election to them, who the candidates are, how the electoral process works, etc... Most of my students got a bit lost and unfocused, but did manage to prove that American globalization is still alive and kicking, as they all knew about Sarah Palin and her knocked-up teenage daughter.
I'm running low on battery, so I'll end here. My parents are coming next week for--can you believe it?--my first vacation. I have almost 2 weeks off starting on Friday, and I've only been teaching for a 7 days! Gotta love la vie francaise!
All my love,
Betsy

New Apartment

Settling

The first week anywhere is a bit strange, I imagine, and Paris is no exception. A lot has changed since my stay here last summer. First of all, the Eiffel Tower is blue. I think Sarkozy wanted to make some kind of loving gesture to the EU, because there was also a display on the Champs de Mars. On the other side, there is a giant circle of golden stars, you know so they're turning this massive phallic structure into a flag. hot.
{this photo is not mine, but was taken by a new friend named Leah. The phantom dressed in white is, of course, yours truly and the excitable blonde next to me is my new roommate, Sarah}

The second most notable change is that, unlike last summer when I enjoyed a blissful, Emory-cushioned stay in the Latin Quarter, this time there is the force of the French Administration to reckon with. I've been dividing my time here so far between getting to know other assistants and attempting to construct a sort of social life and trying to sort through the bureaucratic mess that Hemingway never told me about. However, the hassle of opening a bank account attaining a residence card, moving into my new apartment and figuring out regular access to the internet will be resolved soon. In the mean time, I've met some really nice people who I imagine will travel and frolic through Paris with me this year.
I am still staying chez Camus here in this lovely abode. They went to their house in the country this weekend so I had the place to myself for a few days. I hope I'll be able to get out of their hair by this weekend, but we'll see. I'm heading to meet my landlord this afternoon and will post photos of my new place ASAP.
I also went to visit my school this week to meet the faculty, etc.. and found a massive space station of a structure on a hill with over 2,000 students. It felt like that scene in Never Been Kissed when Drew Barrymore goes back to high school in her white boa. The french students are excessively chic and all look older than I do, and of course, as all teenagers do, travel in large packs. Luckily, my classes shouldn't exceed 20 students, so that shouldn't be too intimidating. Furthermore, my supervisor is a very nice British woman who has already taken it upon herself to ensure that I have as many long weekends and late mornings as possible integrated into my schedule--so tighhhtt.
Ok, I think that's all for now. All my love.