bonne année!

Happy New Year from Valence! In France, people continue to wish each other "bonne année" all the way through the end of January. It's a perfectly acceptable way to greet each other, especially when it comes on a tea biscuit, as seen above. This little place, called Tasse et Glace (mug and ice cream), has become one of my favorites in Valence. I went there last Wednesday with my friend Carey to unwind a little bit and read. Not only does it feature countless flavors of tea, hot chocolate, and ice cream, as well as other treats, it also has free wifi. It's decorated with trendy lamps, comfortable chairs and sofas, and tables filled with magazines and games. The biggest highlight, however, is that every afternoon from 3- close a man comes with his massage chair and gives 10 minute massages for 10 euros with a tea or coffee included! Here's me enjoying a tea and Carey enjoying a free sample massage. Come one, come all!

Also, drumroll..... Finally some pictures from my life as a teacher! I've refrained from really taking any before now, because I'm usually teaching, but this little girl's shirt was too funny to pass up and it was the last class of the day!

Hello Hannah Montana, all the way over in France. I don't know if you can tell all of the intricate design here, such as the bubble shoulders, but it's pretty spectacular. You also may or may not notice the long, faint scratch above her right eye. Some of the kids in this class have really taken a liking to showing me their scars and injuries, so this little girl came up to me after class to explain how the dazzling, dangling rhinestones from her t-shirt had scratched her in the face as she was trying to put it on. Hysterical.

I've also been collecting silly bandz this week! The first one came from little Enzo, who I'm about 98% sure is in love with me. He presented me with a statue of liberty silly band from his USA pack. I wore it to school the next day, and two other kids in two different classes also gave me silly bandz! Mom, I need you to send me my collection from home, I'm going to start trading. Here are two pics from École Élémentaire Joliot Curie. The second is a mural on one of the outside walls.

I think that French schools may be a little bit more sparse than their American counterparts in terms of materials and classroom decor, but the longer I've been here, the more I've realized that this does not detract at all from the dynamism or vibrant nature of the learning that takes place. It just means that the teachers, like me, have to be a little more creative and craftsy. Since I've mostly finished with some of the banal basics, (like counting and the ABCs, which I felt obligated to tackle early) we've been able to move on to more interesting topics so far this term, such as food, likes/dislikes, colors, clothes, etc.

I really hit the ground running my first week back here! My fantastic two weeks at home surrounded by friends and family totally recharged my batteries. I got here on Monday afternoon and was able to unpack and get myself together a little bit, and I got up at 6:30 on Tuesday and went right to school to teach! There were many highlights from this past week, one being a free trip to the opera to see Carmen! The family that Claire lives with had 12 extra tickets so a bunch of my assistant buddies and my roommates and a couple of Cloé's friends were all able to go and watch the show.

It was a great performance, and I knew quite a few more songs than I thought I would! Who knew I already knew some French opera?! I bet you'd recognize it too, the show includes one of the most popular opera songs in the world. Click this link to hear a sampling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd0FNpiBDyA

The next day, I had another tennis date with my friend Marian at the club, and I got to try out the new court shoes I got for Christmas. She invited me to come back with her later that night to watch a semi-professional tournament that was going on there! Marian's coach was playing so we stood on the sidelines with some other fans and watched the match. On Saturday night, I went to a birthday party for a guy in my running group with some of my other assistant friends. He'd really worked hard on the food and decorations, and it was a nice evening.

Another huge highlight last week came on Sunday when Cloé's mom invited us over to make galette des rois (king cake)! They eat these to celebrate Epiphany, and they are very different than the ones you see in the US associated with Mardi Gras. We had fun learning how to make them, and Cloé's whole family came over later in the afternoon to eat them with us. I got the hidden little king in my piece- yay for power and good luck this year!

Other good news from this week is that Nicole and I found a printer/scanner/copier on the French equivalent of Craigslist for 25 euros, so we bought it! Technology and baller lesson plans here we come! Bad news from this week is that our upstairs neighbor seems to have skipped town and left his two big dogs upstairs by themselves. Someone seems to be coming every couple of days to let them out, but this has been going on for quite some time, and the dogs have started barking around the clock. I can't imagine that it smells too nice up there either. We've called animal protection and the rental agency, but there is a lot of legal tape around the situation. Hopefully we'll be able to do something in the very near future!