Thursday, October 29, 2009

A Well-Deserved Break

After a strenous two and a half weeks of "teaching", we finally get a ten day break! Boy are we grateful. Actually, I'm a little bummed that I didn't get more time with my students. I didn't even get to meet them all before the break! The break is also oddly placed because I did a bunch of exercises on Halloween this week, and I'm supposed to do the same with the rest of the kids after the break, which ends November 5th. Isn't it a little strange to be studying Halloween in November? Apparently not.

For our break, we've mostly been lounging around, but starting tomorrow we should become a little more active. Last Saturday my Canadian friend Catherine introduced us to a very nice French couple who live in Orléans. Anne-Sophie and Pierre just returned from two years in Manchester, England, and have moved to Orléans to begin teaching careers. Both speak excellent English, and we're hoping to invite them over for dinner this week. They also gave us some tips on how to stay in France as "contractuel" teachers for the next school year. We're going to talk to some people about it soon.
Sunday was "E" day, and all the assistants brought excellent edibles. There was the expected plethora of eggplant; but also some emmental cheese, epice cake, and delicious eclairs. We're skipping this Sunday's dinner because Andrew and I are going to Paris to visit with Natalie, a Peace Corps buddy of ours from Mali who just moved to here. All the museums are free on Sunday, so we're going to pack in as much as we can.

Monday was shopping day, which was fun but a little depressing at the same time. We each geared up for winter in some new, fashionable clothes, and we sprung for a new comforter set as it's been getting quite chilly at night, despite the lovely clear skies and mild temps during the day. At one of the stores, we saw an interesting advertisement on all the panties and bras:


We're both going crazy for the beautiful changing colors that signals fall is here. It's been so long since we've seen red, yellow, and orange leaves on trees!


Tomorrow we're off to Beaugency to visit our friend Justine. We'll post more pics after Paris. Of course, you can see the rest of our photos at picasaweb.google.com/nicoledcwallace.

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