sortie à st. quentin

Yesterday, we had an amazing lunch for the "repas de Noel". It's seriously the best meal of the year in the cantine. We had chicken in a honey sauce, green beans, yummy potato things, foi gras with toast and tomatoes for the entree, cheese, a buche de Noel (which was practically ice cream), and a chocolate Santa. Mmm!! They're having another "repas de Noel" for dinner tomorrow night. Can't wait!

With all the illnesses, C. ended up working last night, so it was nice having an extra meal with him. It also gave us a chance to talk about last minute things for St. Quentin. I was also happy to learn that the BTS were not going. I did not need to hear their teasing. Though they all are probably now aware that I went, because I wasn't there with them for dinner. Hopefully, they won't be there on Friday... there's a pretty huge chance of that.

The students were beyond thrilled to see me at the meeting place in the school this afternoon. There were fifteen of them, and then C., A., and I were the chaperones. We all walked down to the station together and pretty much had a car to ourselves on the train. C. sat next to me and then one of my favorite students was sitting in the group of seats just in front of us. He started singing Lily Allen's "F*ck You". It only took one line of it to have C. and I in fits of laughter. The students thought we were nuts. The student (who only speaks to me in English) then went on to say that I should be really happy to be the only girl among so many boys, and that moreover I was next to C. and such. Of course, since C. only caught and understood bits and pieces of it, the fact that he kept leaning close to whisper things to me, just added fuel to the fire.

Once in St. Quentin and at the future meeting spot, the students headed off on their own ways, and C., A., and I did a quick tour of the market (I made them try maple syrup) and then went for hot chocolates. That definitely helped to warm me up on this freezing cold day.

Then, C. found some students and they all went ice skating. There wasn't enough convincing in the world that could get me on the ice. And soon I had another excuse (besides killing myself). The problem with going ice skating? You needed gloves. C. had 3 pairs, but the 3 students didn't have any, so he stole mine. I was fine with it, but I didn't realize how long he'd end up skating. I ended up with freezing cold hands and being the responsible one, I was also holding all of C.'s things. When A. and I could no longer feel our fingers and toes, we went into some of the shops while waiting for the skaters.

Finally, C. was done, and the two of us went to the Christmas tavern to warm up a bit and meet the proviseur adjoint (vice principal) of the lycee. C. was nice enough to buy me a vin chaud (mulled wine) and pain perdu (like French toast only with sugar instead of syrup on top). That definitely did me well. While we were there, I warned C. that it was time for the meetup, and sure enough the contact phone started ringing. All the students were on time and waiting for us! Huge surprise! We made the trek back to the station, and C. bought A. and me hot chocolates to warm up. Seriously, I feel so spoiled.

The train was late (gotta love strike days), and the boys were a bit vulgar and the like on the train. They were too energetic. I did crack them up after their rendition of "Le lion est mort ce soir" (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) by singing it in English. We were back in Chauny way late (and my student recounted to me in English about the highly inappropriate gift one of the guy's bought for his girlfriend), so by the time we got to the cantine, it was just us who went to St. Quentin. It was actually a calm dinner which was nice.

I still maintain that outings with the school are the best. I took some photos - they're on Facebook. C. kept thanking me for coming, and I responded that I was the thankful one. Let's see, I didn't pay for the train (another treat from C.), my drinks (except for the very first one), or my pain perdu. So I spent 2€80 in all this afternoon. Not bad at all...

Tomorrow, I'm going to do a class at a college (middle school) with the new English teacher. She's coming to get me before 7:30! Ugh! Though there is an "alerte orange" for the weather tonight, so if it snows, we're not going. The buses are also cancelled tomorrow due to the threat of "snow". There won't be many students at the lycee tomorrow. Why can't that be for Friday when I work 8-4 (possibly 4:30) instead of tomorrow when I only have one class with lyceens?