my boss sent me home because he said that i looked terrible. i do feel like someone's sick germs beat me up. i want some whiskey and lemon honey magic.

( survey for sssandy )

i like these articles:

www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/books/18libr.html

www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/arts/design/23ouro.html

www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/nyregion/23fiction.html

i have a nerdy tidbit of information related to a picture in the first article if anyone reads it and wants to know. at least it's proof that i'm learning things in school. the article is about a library in switzerland that is digitizing medievel manuscripts. it's a gorgeous library.

macon

i have to head to middle georgia in a week for school related activities. i kind of can't wait to be in milledgeville. i'm pretty sure that's one of the symptoms of bird flu.

this is sad. there are pictures of those windows somewhere in this blog. i bet carla bruni did it.

i found someone kind enough to go with me to see jay reatard tuesday night. it was fun, but the show didn't last for very long...and no one spilled beer on the band's equipment or anything.

the other day i was asked how opposed i was to the forbidden kingdom. i thought it was code for something..similar to when i was asked to go to the meeting place (which is an actual bar and not code for under the bleachers). it turns out that the forbidden kingdom is a movie. i'm going to quote a line from the yahoo movies synopsis: "There, Jason is charged with a monumental task: he must free the fabled warrior the Monkey King, who has been imprisoned by the evil Jade Warlord." awesome.

the pictures make it seem like it was a lot of fun. the four hour layover at billy's auto repair shop in cottondale (alabama), the sub-par cracker barrel breakfast, the nofx cover band, the five hour layover at a truck stop in waco, the subsequent visit to the tire center at waco's local walmart, the three hour layover at a wendy's in the middle of texas, and the twenty hour greyhound bus ride pictures were deleted.

so, what follows are the pictures from a road-trip to austin, texas.

maybe it's paris, but i think i'll miss france more than i like to think. i just won't miss that one place.

i have many pictures to post later.

i have two days of teaching left and then vacation and then i'm going home.  i'm so happy about it.  and i'll be in paris for my last week + some, which is the perfect way to leave france...for me, at least. 

i will miss riding trains..and eating some cheeses and shopping at zara and h&m.  it's quite a long list, but i think i'll be able to handle it.

not much to report from these parts.  it's snowing again.

saturday i had my first encounter with french law enforcement.  i learned that there is a difference between the police and the gendarmerie.  i thought gendarmerie was french for police, but i was mistaken.  i'm not sure what the difference is because i was afraid to ask.  people tend to be offended by those types of questions.  anyway, good times.

other than that, i count days, drink hot chocolate, read, and make valentines.

the internet at the apartment stopped working.  the problem may be that the previous assistants paid for the line until now.  i'm not sure why or how, but it makes passing time just a tad bit more difficult.  i am sitting at the mcdonald's in nancy with lexie.  it's sad. 

i'm afraid i'll start reading any and all books i can find in the apartment and that would mean a book about weddings, a danielle steel gem, a book called knitting under the influence and other must-reads.  frankly, i'd rather chew off my own arm. 

last week we saw nearly every movie that the theater showed.  there's only one screen, so it isn't like we see five films a night or anything..but we would if we had the opportunity.  last week we saw "si c'etait lui" (painful) and "hitman"  (less painful).  tomorrow "into the wild" is playing and, annnnd it's in version orginale. 

i just remembered the best thing about dijon.  cheaters was on television!  dubbed in french!  it was amazing. 

after spain i went to dijon and beaune with cool sara.  we didn't eat any mustard or drink any burgundy wine.  i ate snails though..and they were so good i soaked my bread in their juices.  muahaha.  uh..so, yeah.  pictures.  there aren't many because it was too cold and rainy to bother.

december 29-january 4

in between saying good-bye to my family and leaving for spain, i had lunch with grandpa horta at a neat place on the left bank called les éditeurs. grandpa horta is one of the coolest people i've ever met. so cool, in fact, that he carried my eight-hundred pound carry-on bag around for me. but besides that he knows pretty much everything about movies, books, music, museums, disgusting perfumes, and well, everything.

flying over paris at night (and also having a window seat) was nice. the eiffel tower happened to be sparkling as we flew over and i could pick out different landmarks as we headed out of town. sounds cheesy, but it was pretty.

sandy and david were kind enough to pick me up from the airport in madrid. sandy made me a "welcome to africa (cause napoleon said that africa starts in the pyrenees)" card with helpful spanish phrases, such as "will you use a new syringe?" and we ate gross airport food while we waited to take a bus to david's city, valladolid.

new year's eve we ate dinner with all of david's family. they like to sing opera and draw on sleeping family member's faces. they're also super sweet. at midnight we ate grapes (one for each chime of the clock) and drank cider. we went out with david's friends later..like 2 a.m. later. we stayed out until 9:30 or so and ended the night/morning with hot chocolate (the best in the world!! not that powder junk), churros and snow flurries. 

i'll just post pictures for the rest of the story.

i think i'll do a three (or maybe only two) part holiday post extravaganza. granted, they may all be posted today because i don't have anything to do.

part one:

december 20- december 29

i picked mom and bill up from the airport on the 20th and we spent the day getting to know the french transportation system. i had to teach the next day, but we took the five minute tour of town that included a stop at the local grocer.

we went to strasbourg and saw the christmas markets. we all thought we might freeze to death, so we took lots of breaks to do things like see regionally specific stores like zara and drink vin chaud, and eat alsatian potato pasta. we spent the night in nancy and saw place stanislas lit and iced over and it was that much more beautiful.

our few days back here were very calm. we watched the two movies that they brought to me, rushmore and deathproof, and then we moved on to episodes of arrested development. of course we indulged in popcorn and the ever classic coca-cola. i'm pretty sad that we had to end that tradition.

christmas was spent here and mom and i bought a buche de noel (it's what those frenchies do) and made eggs diablo (we thought about you, shannon) with dijon mustard. i think it made them more diablo-esque. mom and bill weren't really feeling the cider, so i took care of it. afterwards mom and i had a mini dance party in the living room and bill talked to etienne. i'm sad that ended too.

soon we headed to paris and hit up all the packed tourist destinations. the weather was much nicer and there were no threats of frost bite. we ate falafel in the marais (i thought about you, arrie), i tried snails and loved them, we walked the seine, we paid our respects to napoleon, we crammed into the gritty metro. we said good-bye and i fought crying for a week and two days.

i'm back from my holiday and i have lots of pictures and so on, but i really want to post this video until i can make a real post. sandy and i watched this together and we thought it was amusing. it's about the smoking ban in france. watch this video

the sunshine thing is still insane, but everyone else seems to know that now too.

and now, better things!  i went to paris thursday to pick up mom and bill from the airport.  yesterday we went to strasbourg to see the christmas markets.  it was a bit too cold to fully enjoy them. it's been cold for awhile, but now everything is frozen and covered in a combination of snow and ice.  it's all very pretty, but i'm a tad worried that i'll lose my ears or toes.

we spent today in nancy.  stores were actually open!  on a sunday!  i bought a new coat.  it's the most money i've ever spent on one article of clothing, but it's beautiful and warm.  tonight we're watching death proof (thanks sean) and eating popcorn and making hot chocolate with marshmallows.

p.s.
expect holiday or post cards soon.

our thanksgiving dinner was a success.  at least, that's what us chefs like to think.  lexie, angela (other german assistant) and i started cooking at noon.  word out on the street is that turkeys and cranberries are rare, but our hostess found a 6.5 pound turkey and one jar of cranberries for us.  we also made biscuits, gravy, and mashed potatoes.  the twelve french guests seemed scared of the gravy and couldn't figure out the biscuits.  "are they like scones?  cookies?"  no.  similarly, my students couldn't figure out what turkeys were.  "is it like a chicken?"  i guess the hand turkeys that we created in class weren't good examples. 

everyone seemed to have a good time (except sunshine..uh, surprise).  lexie and i laughed a lot.  mostly over what french people say when they're telling someone to chug a drink (cul sec).  we literally translated it as "dry ass."  after we laughed most of the evening, someone finally told us that it's more like "dry bottom of the glass."  damn.

oh, i got a cake too.  lots of candles. 

the train strikes ended and trains were almost normal friday.  still, at nine p.m. i was wondering if alex was going to make it.  it was like a thanksgiving miracle when he called to say that he thought he was downstairs.  not so miraculous that along his journey from brussels to here he lost and recovered his bag, discovered that someone stole his new video camera from recovered bag, and was delayed so much that he missed the last train and had to take a 63 euro (it's painful to convert it to dollars) cab ride from 30 km away.

saturday we went to nancy.  the christmas market started, so all of the christmas lights were on and there are little booths shaped like houses for vendors.  it's oh so pretty.

when we got back, we went to a cafe where there were three teenagers playing red hot chili peppers songs poorly and without vocals.  as we were leaving, they played "sweet home alabama."  it was bizarre.

we went out thursday night for the beaujolais nouveau festivities. every third thursday in november the beaujolais nouveau (wine) comes out and it's kind of a big deal. the wine is different because it's only fermented for a few weeks before it's released and it's only good for about a year. it's not supposed to be anything spectacular and it's shunned by wine snobs. still, something like 65 million bottles are distributed worldwide. more fun facts here!

i got real paid. i was starting to worry after sunshine told me that the assistants before us weren't paid until january.  anyway, i promptly bought tickets to go to spain from the 29th of december until the 4th of january. it's going to be swell! i love my spanish book. i can't wait to tell someone that i've been stung by a wasp and that i like their tie.

i hope that the french rail workers decide that they miss work soon.  friday alex is supposed to be here, but i have no idea what's going to happen with the strikes going on.  i feel horrible that i can't help. today the school teachers were on strike, so that means that i was too.  of course, i was completely wrapped up in school related activities...i wouldn't dare use such a day to do anything besides create lesson plans and grade tests. 

thursday is my birthday and thanksgiving.  of course, thanksgiving doesn't exist here, but a teacher that lexie is friends with wants to have a dinner.  we assistants are in charge of making the turkey, so it could be a disaster. 

it's snowing!!!  eeek!