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No I haven’t flown back to US without telling anyone, I spent a weekend in Normandy and visited the American Cemetery which rests on official American soil. With the five other English assistants, we rented a car and embarked on our first driving adventure in France (which with the exception of a speeding ticket that I was not responsible for, went well). We left Friday night after everyone finished with classes and arrived late that evening in Bayeux. The speeding ticket incident did occur on this part of the trip unfortunately, we were driving along when there was suddenly a blinding white light - this prompted me to ask the others if they too had seen the light or I was just about to lose my eyesight on the A-13. Yes they too had seen the light, Jesus suggested it might have been an alien abduction; but Charles informed us no, it was the flash from the radar camera . . . awesome . . For something that’s supposed to promote the safety of those on the highway, blinding lights don’t really seem to be the best way to achieve this . . .

Back on American Soil

Lisa Damico
2007-03-08 20:31:11

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live in)) with the other assistants to Rambouillet, a small city between Chartres and Paris that has a chateau and extensive gardens. Came back in time to shower, change and hop on the train to Paris to attend the birthday dinner of a French friend of Charles' whom he worked with in India before coming to France. We met this girl the previous Wednesday when we all went out to dinner in Paris at a restaurant called La Refuge de la Fondue to celebrate the visit of Rachel's best friend. La Refuge de la Fondue's claim to fame is that it serves wine in baby bottles as well as putting wine in the cheese fondue . . . it's a happy walk back to the train station

Woke up early Sunday morning and for the first time went into Paris to spend a day by myself and take advantage of the dimanche gratuit (free Sunday) at the Louvre. Aside from getting hit on by a museum guard who had to approach me because he was just dying to know "if I was Brazilian" and if he could "have my number" it was a very fun day that made all the art history classes very worthwhile. I then met up with Rachel and her friend after the museum closed and walked down the Champs Elysées to climb the 284 stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomphe for a nighttime view of Paris.

This week at school has been spent preparing for Valentine's Day (and my birthday, because of course that's practically a holiday as well). I discovered a rather amusing cultural difference in the presentation to the class of the Valentine's Day vocabulary I found on an ESL website. "Disgusting/gross" was included under a picture of a boy receiving a kiss from a girl. The students were very confused as to why a boy would say such a thing - I tried to explain "well you know little boys think girls are gross and don't like to get Valentines or kisses from them when they're your age" "Why would they think that? We love girls and kisses." which I guess shouldn't surprise me since in the previous lesson on "Feelings" on average 17 of the 20 students in each class claimed to feel "in love." It all makes sense now . . .

The Christmas in Italy and Spain blog to come . . . Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Gros bisous!