It's 12:45 in the afternoon and I'm in my little bed propped up by pillows. I can hear one of my "roommates" in the kitchen making lunch. My room is next to the kitchen, which means smells easily float in. Today unfortunately it kind of smells like dog food...all though that could just be paté or some other meat substance we don't regularly eat in America.
I'm watching Lie To Me online which is kind of a fun CSI type show. The premise being that you can tell people are lying just by looking at their facial expressions or gestures. Why am I lazing about on a Wednesday afternoon? Because the French never have school on Wednesday afternoons! Though they do have Saturday morning classes so I guess I would hesitate before calling them lucky.
I'm feeling pretty good. The kids have their BAC blanc tomorrow so I don't have to go to work. Life lately in Crépy has been really fulfilling. Last week Chloe and Gabriele, the British and German Assistants, came over for dinner! Then this weekend Petey came to visit and we went to a reggae concert in Paris on Saturday night. I am also proud to report that I have finally made friends with the locals! I think it took being a little lonely the first two months to make me really put out an effort to make French friends. Turns out there are actually a lot of people my age who live in and around Crépy! I love that no one speaks English because it forces me to improve my French. Talk about total immersion. Though I am still working on losing my somewhat American accent, I think my French is coming along quite nicely. To be honest I'm a bit obsessed with learning all the slang people my age use. I've got two different notebooks going with new phrases scrawled in them. Living here is such a great learning device because when I hear something new in French, I can immediately turn around and try it out on someone who speaks the language! So yes life is pretty good.
Since I haven't been too active on the blog front, I thought I would share a little bit about chez moi. I live in the boarding part of a high school in town. Basically I have my own room and shower but share a kitchen and bathroom with three other teachers who live here during the week. All three happen to be men. Really I don't see very much of them as everyone pretty much stays in their rooms. I'd say I use the kitchen the most and seem to come and go more often as well. Is it odd to live with men? Yes, a bit. They range from about 25, 35 and 60. But honestly they seem more startled by my presence than vice versa.
It's now been about two and a half weeks since Petey and I returned from our trip to Germany and Austria! Phew what a fun fast time. In two weeks we toured Berlin, Munich, Salzburg and Vienna. I don't think I have and carbohydrates in my life. Believe it or not we have another 2 week vacation coming up in February. We're thinking of going south this time as neither of us can stand anymore of the cold. Perhaps Greece? Istanbul? It gives my heart flutters to think that I can literally travel anywhere I please (funds permitted of course).
To sum up this not so short post, I am loving living in Abroad. I'll write more soon about my French social life because there are definite differences to how we hang out in America. Also, sorry for the lack of pictures. I'm trying to figure out how to load them directly from iPhoto. Darn you MacBook I will win!
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