Vacation!

10:37 P.M.

The time has come and I have survived! It's officially les vacances de la Toussaint and I'm off to Toulouse tomorrow to see Laurent. This week seemed to zoom by, maybe because I was actually kind of excited to teach the kids about Halloween and pass out candy. When I was little, Halloween was a huge deal, so it makes me happy to see the kids excited too. My last class of the week is amazing, the kids are angels (which is a relief because the class right before them is an absolute nightmare). In the hallway after class, one of the girls came up to me to say "Bonne vacances!" and kind of got on her tippy toes to signal that she wanted to faire les bises (do the kisses on each cheek). Too cute!
Oddly enough, another girl came up to me to tell me she was moving to Belgium. She said, "I just wanted to say I love you. Look, I even wore my Pucca socks!" For those of you who don't know, Pucca is a little cartoon Chinese girl.

After class today, I had lots of errands to run and I'm pooped, which is why I am sitting in my living room, drinking hot chocolate on a Friday night. I have a load of laundry to do before tomorrow (why didn't I think of this sooner??) and it sucks because we don't have a dryer. This means it takes almost 2 days for a pair of jeans to dry. Boo. I do, however, applaud the French for their energy saving ways.

Jesus, the machine just went into spin cycle and shook the walls. Why am I always cursed with crazy ass laundry machines??

Should be getting paid in the next few days. I've been dying to eat at some of the restaurants around the city, but I've been broke. The other assistants and I decided that we will try cuisses de grenouille (frogs legs) in a restaurant once we get paid. The sad thing is that my apartment is right next to this cute restaurant overlooking the Mozelle river and every time I open my window to let in some fresh air, my room is filled with all sorts of yummy smells. I've been opening my window less and less these days, though. It's starting to get cold here. I'm already bundled up in my big coat, scarf, and gloves when I go to work.

The boulangerie next door has a sign up saying that they are closing up shop during vacation. I have a feeling this would not happen in the U.S. or at least not very often. Today alone I've walked by a few stores with signs up, apologizing for the inconvenience. I explained to one of my classes that stores are always open in the U.S. They said, eyes wide open, "Even on Sunday?" I said, "Even on Sunday" and there were gasps all around the room. I said, "There are grocery stores open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week" and they laughed and said, "Nooo..." as if I was joking. I told them I had been grocery shopping at 3 A.M. and one student raised his hand to say, "Weren't you tired?" Cute.

Anyway, laundry is done! Bonne vacances to everyone in France and a see you later to everyone back home. Oy, I'm already having nightmares about getting lost on the Paris metro tomorrow.