I've been lazy about posting lately. Will try to work on that. I'll write about my week in just a second, but I want to start out with this instead. We just got back from seeing the film "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis". I don't think I've laughed so hard during a French film. Despite our friends warnings that we wouldn't be able to understand the film because of the accents (and there's no subtitles like there are in other parts of France, because people actually speak like that here), we still decided to go, and we understood it just fine. The cinema was packed, and everyone just laughed and had a good time! I think we enjoyed it a lot more, because we were like "Yep, that was our reaction when we moved here" and "that's totally a description of our lives". Seriously, it really was like the story of our lives up here in Northern France. I will definitely be buying that on DVD. Watch the trailer. It's hilarious. Okay, so people don't speak that bad here (that's further north), but it's almost that bad. People don't articulate at all, and they eat a lot of their words.
Let's see... this week was good. Wednesday, we met up with Katie's Lebanese friend for coffee. She's always great to talk to. That night, we made a huge bed of blankets on Hart's floor, and we all curled up together and watched "La Vie en Rose". It was a good movie. We put on the French subtitles, and thank God, because sometimes, the actress was just so hard to understand. Well, it makes sense, because she was playing Edith Piaf, and we could definitely see why she won the Oscar.
Thursday, I played Scattergories with my secondes. They loved it! So that was a success. Then, I had the problem half of the dreaded DP6 alone. Florence was sick. Luckily, there were a lot of absences, and we were in the library so I had some supervision/help. That night, Katie's friend was in town from London, so of course, we showed her Chauny at its best. We got coffee at out favorite place. Viany made a dinner and our gendarme friend stopped by to eat with us. Then, we took her to Cuba where half the people we knew happened to be and the downstairs was actually open on a weekday! Quelle chance! We also gave the owners the magic camel we bought them in Tunisia. Cheesiest thing ever.
Friday, there was some excitement at the high school. Everyone was evacuated for about an hour or so, because of a gas leak. Rumor was that someone had accidentally cut the line in the atelier. I think all the pompiers and gendarmes on duty came to the school. They were everywhere! All the boys were just standing outside on the grass. The cantine was packed for lunch, because some of the teachers left their keys and such inside the school. Turns out, it had nothing to do with gas. They were changing the filter on one of the compression machines, and the odor of that mixed with the odor of oil created the smell of gas.
Viany had a friend visiting this weekend, so we all had dinner together and then headed out to the bar. It was a good time. Best Friday night there in awhile (last week, it was really lame). We chatted with a bunch of people we knew (and met some new people and continued to discover how small a town Chauny is because people we didn't think knew each other actually do!) and somehow scored a bunch of free things. W. likes to give us the hookup. Hart, Katie, and I got a ride home with T. and my student F. But first, we had to drive out to Viry (neighboring town) to meet up with J. and his girlfriend. We never quite understood the reasoning behind that encounter. Back in Chauny, our English speaking friend and all of her friends were waiting for us back at Hart's place. Oops. And I think that another one of my students officially thinks we're all insane. And T. totally used the word "cuillère" (spoon) to describe the act of "spooning" in bed. We taught him that! Hehe! The French do not have a word for it, so we made up our own verb using the direct translation of spoon and now, it's catching on!
Saturday, we went to St Quentin to do some shopping. I needed some things from Sephora, so it was a good trip. We also got coffee at a really cool place where we planned out our Saturday night. We decided to do a "bar crawl" of Chauny. We had to cut a few places out, because we got a later start than planned, but that's probably for the best. Ellie and the German assistant from her town decided to join us, so that was well worth the wait! We started out at Saturn's Pub... kind of lame, but they had some tecktoniks going on, so that was fun to watch. Next up, Bavarro. Also had next to no one there. So finally, we ended up at Cuba where we met up with T. There were tons of people there per usual, and we had a good time. The DJ hung out with us after awhile. He wants to get coffee with us on Wednesday. We're very in demand.
We had really wanted to go to a boite, but never found a ride. T. had drank whiskey (courtesy of the DJ), so he couldn't drive. He left his car at the bar and walked home with us. Probably for the best. I think we were pretty wiped out. I was exhausted! Not quite sure when I fell asleep. One moment, it was me, Hart, and T. in Hart's bed. The next, it was me, Hart, and Katie. What a night! And Hart's bed is way more comfortable than mine.
Today, we were very lazy. We did nothing. Unless you count napping as an activity. For dinner, we went out for pizza where we saw a bunch of people we know! Okay, so they work there, but one of the surveillants from the high school was there! Yeah... he's best friends with the guy who works there. Small town. And then, we went to the movie.
That was my week.
This week, Alyssa will be here on Tuesday. That's exciting! I'll get to show her around, and she's going to go to a class or two (I get to skip the rest!). It's sad she won't be here in the evening so she can meet the Chauny cast of characters, but maybe we'll run into some during the day.
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