impromptu weekend in paris

It's a small world. Guess who I had lunch with this past week? Another lectrice. Said lectrice was the assistant at the lycee the year before I arrived. We reminisced about Chauny, Claude, La Rotonde, and the lovely cantine. Good times. It made me really nostalgic.

I had a wonderful impromptu weekend in Paris. It was sad saying goodbye to Jess, but it was a wonderful time.

Upon arriving in Paris, I wandered around with another lectrice and her friend for a bit, before running off to meet Jess, Emily, and Kylie (of K&K) in Emily's new neighborhood. Let me just say how jealous I am! Next up, Jess and I headed off to St. Michel to meet up with Katia (the other half of K&K) for cocktails. While waiting for Katia, I looked up and saw my friend Eric from Middlebury walking by! I never run into people in Paris! We were able to catch up some before heading off for yummy (and expensive) cocktails at a really cool place.

Once Emily got off work, she and a friend of mine joined us for rhum-rhums and a Chinese food dinner. We all ordered different things and then shared. I was doomed to use chopsticks. You may remember when C. tried to teach me to use them before giving up and returning my fork to me. Needless to say, chopsticks are probably a good diet for me. I definitely didn't eat very much as I suffered trying to pick food up with them.

Saying goodbye to Jessica was so sad, but now, I have more motivation to save up and go to Australia! That's going to be a lot of pennies!

The following day, after an initial panic, my friend and I wandered around her neighborhood some and ate falafel before I introduced her to mint tea and pastries at the Grande Mosque de Paris. I love that place! Anyway, I've been joking that Claude would decide that this past weekend would be a good time to bring my stuff to me. Sure enough, I had an email that morning saying they (guess his wife was joining him) were coming that afternoon. I sent off an email but then found his number and started calling. No answer. I was freaked that they'd already left Chauny. Lucky, he had not and he said he'd come next week.

Later, I headed back to Valenciennes and met up with Hannah. She made me a yummy galette for dinner and the two of us headed out for a bit. We had a good time and were later joined by some others. There were tons of students out - even from my school! Luckily, I don't think any of the ones are actually my students (unless they have yet to turn up to class). Though one did tell me that if I were his teacher, he'd actually go to class.

Today's classes went well. Some of them really got into the debate, so I was quite proud. I'm still getting a feel for everything, but so far, so good. Tomorrow, I start with the first years. Hopefully, they go well. I have four and a half hours straight. Tuesdays are going to be rough. And I'm not in the building with free coffee, so I can't run for a cup between classes like I do on Mondays. *sigh*

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm off to Paris for my actual scheduled trip.