Friday was my first time meeting with what the teacher called "motivated" students. I found out who the girl was during the week, and when the teacher asked who wanted to go with her, her boyfriend volunteered. I know he's her boyfriend, because they are always together. And thanks to the way the French school system works here, they are literally always together, because they have all of their classes together as well. I was a bit nervous as to how this was going to work out. I had to talk to them for an hour! Believe me, with most of these students, that's not even a working possibility. Anyway, I met with them, and what do I discover? The girl is amazing at English. I mean, she still has a very heavy accent and some grammar issues, but she can hold a conversation. And if her boyfriend didn't know a word in English, she usually translated before I did! Through talking with her, I learned that she studied in Australia for a summer and lived with a family. That explains it! We'll be meeting once every two weeks. I'm looking forward to it!

Friday evening, Viany made some amazing soup. Seriously, this girl can cook. And despite all of the wine we had, Katie, Hart, Guy, and I all managed to have a heated intellectual discussion/debate. How French of us! We then decided to go out to a Cuba Cafe which is a bar that one of my students recommended. It was really cool. We had some drinks and played some pool when who do I see? Two of my students. One is a seconde (which means he's like 16/17 years old. The other is the BTS student who recommended the place, and he works there! Oh boy. While playing pool, a guy who works there came up to us to tell us that we should come downstairs, so of course, we do. It's like a dance club underneath! And of course, I discovered more of my students! At least most of them are BTS. My student who works there kept coming over to talk to me and to keep us in the know of what was going on... like free beer minute after they play "Please Don't Stop the Music". Katie and Guy enjoyed that one.

We had a really good time! We danced a lot and just enjoyed ourselves. However, I kept seeing my students. There was the one who had seen me walking home one night and brought it up in class, and then there was a discussion of my Chauny social life. My class with with him is going to be fun this week! I mean, he's really nice. He did recommend the place, and he kept talking to me all night. He even asked if I was going to be coming back on Saturday! And when we were leaving, he said "Goodbye", and he has this way of saying "goodbye" that cracks me up. Once outside the place, I hear a chorus of "Hello Shannon", and I look over and it's a group of my students. This was the coolest place we've found in Chauny (it's even open until 3am!), and it's like the last bar we've tried, so I have a feeling we'll be going back there a lot. Guess I'll have to get used to going out with my students there.

Saturday, we all got up extremely late, but still decided to head off to Paris. We went to the Christmas market at La Defense. It was really cool and pretty, but the place was packed with people! You could barely move! I miss the Christmas market in Aix. Viany had to leave to go meet with a Spanish teacher from Chauny, so I decided to go with her. I couldn't take being around that many people any longer! Plus, I did not have confidence that Viany could make it to her meeting place on her own. It's also good for my French when I'm alone with her, because I can only speak French to her. We met up with the guy, and he took us to some bookstores. I had to restrain myself from buying anything! Believe me, I wanted to! We wandered around the area some, before I hung out at Notre Dame to meet up with Michaela, an assistant from Meru who I met in Amiens and who hung out with us for La Nuit Blanche. We're also traveling together for the first half of Christmas vacation. We got dinner at a very delicious Chinese restaurant, which turned out to be very popular as there were so many people waiting for tables by the time we left! But Paris was just ridiculously crowded. Seriously, you couldn't even breathe on the metros. I think I'm going to have to go back during the week sometime soon. I also want to see the Christmas decorations on the grands magasins!

Today is Sunday, so you know what that means! Lazy day! Plus, it's a torrential downpour outside with lots of wind. I'm not looking forward to one I have to head out for dinner. Hopefully, it stops, or at least calms down. I also need to make some lesson plans. Joy.

Tomorrow, Michaela and I are buying are plane tickets for vacation. It looks like we're doing Prague for Christmas and then heading to Barcelona for a few days. After that, I think I'm going to do Lyon for New Year's and then some other city... possibly Aix.