Okay, so last night, awesome! Well, apart from the questionable dinner. The surveillants sat down and said "Bon appetit" per usual, and we responded with "A vous aussi" (and to you). They were like "Non, c'est du sarcasme" (We're being sarcastic), so of course we asked what the meal was... au gratin du poisson. Basically, mashed potatoes mixed with fish. Yeah, so appetizing, I know.

After dinner, one of my BTSers spent over a half an hour trying to flirt with Katie. It was cute. It's also good for our French, because unlike with most French guys, he is the one who keeps the conversation going. He's never short for topics! He also had another friend with him, who when I saw him in the hall today, gave me this sort of smile. Hard to explain. Who knows what they talked about once we left.

We decided to head out to the bar for a bit, and Guy told us that his tennis coach was there. That guy is great, so we all found that to be very happy news. We get to the bar... spend like 10 minutes saying hi to everyone we know (oh the manners of the French) and finally sit down with the tennis coach. We had a very lively conversation where the coach taught us some French hand movements. Seriously, we do not have these kinds of things in the US. I will so have to bring them back with me, which means I will have to try my hardest to remember them all. I'm sure between the four of us, we can do it.

Tennis coach wanted to have another drink with us, but the bar was closing so he decided to bring back a bottle of wine from his place. Oh man, the conversation that followed! He tried to explain the male French psyche when it comes to relationships. This involved using objects to portray the girl and guy. The girl was always a pretty bottle, while the guy was a cap to a bottle. Haha. I think the highlight of the conversation was him raising the cap up above the bottle (the whole convo involved the cap jumping up and down) and saying things like "Can have your number phone?". Oh, tennis coach's broken English is hilarious. He also did a rather funny impression of Guy trying to attract the ladies (which Guy does not try to do here). We were almost dying of laughter at parts. This guy is about the greatest thing in Chauny. But the discussion was also very serious... probably the most serious conversation we have had yet in French.

Today has been a weird day. I have yet to have any classes. I should have had at least my BTS one, but I showed up... no students and no teacher. Wonder if my secondes will be here or not. But that's nothing. It's the last day before vacation and there is a very somber mood here today. The proviseur came in to the teachers room today and everyone grew quiet. He was talking about how there were counseling services available to the students and any teachers that needed to talk about what happened. I understood everything he said, but I had no idea what he was talking about. Luckily, another teacher questioned him. A student was killed in a moto accident last night. I'm pretty sure that I didn't know her, but that news is devastating nonetheless. News story for those who can read French. Katie said the proviseur had been in our hall this morning looking for the other woman who lives here. We think she is a counselor at the school.

Okay, sorry to end on that sad note. I will try to post at least one before I leave for vacation. I'll have to update you on mine and Anna's weekend here in Chauny. Though it appears that some of the people we were hoping to hang out with this weekend will not be going out. Stupid real jobs.

Oh, and I don't think I ever mentioned here that I filled out the form to renew my assistantship. There's no guarantee that I'll be able to renew (new people get the positions first), but there's a pretty good chance in this academy. The countryside of France isn't exactly in high demand. I can use the expression that Viany uses to describe it, but it's not quite appropriate.