i'm not dead, just lazy

Sorry. I have once again let this blog get all dusty. I don't know why I'm such a bad blogger this year. I used to be so good at it. And now that work has ended (just a little over a week ago!), I really have no excuse.

We had a very hectic end of the year. We somehow did not have enough time to get everything done. Literally. My colleague and I had to work extra days to fit in all the student presentations. Then, we were hit with the biggest surprise of them all, our marks were due one day after our students took our exam. As we are the only teachers in the entire school to have every single student (English is mandatory), it seemed a bit harsh. Luckily, we had planned to do oral exams (which means marking is done on the spot) with two thirds of our students. Thank god! The oral exams were a first for our students, so they were our guinea pig group. I think many of them faired better with having an oral exam as opposed to a written one. For others, they sat in front of me shaking. Although they were all thrilled to learn I'll be back next year.

In other work news, my contract for next year has been signed, and I've even started my titre de sejour renewal! I am on the ball this year!

I spent a weekend in Paris a few weeks ago. It was nice catching up with some of my friends from the K&K group as well as chilling with my Middlebury friend in the gardens of Versailles. I also went to my K&K friend Frog's play. It was hilarious. I don't think I've ever laughed that hard at something in French. They did several parodies including one of Dirty Dancing. So funny! We even got to out for drinks with some of the cast (ok, so they're my friends!).

Denise was back in Val for a week, so we had a lovely time catching up. She'll be back in like 6 or 7 weeks.

We've been pretty busy socially. Hanging out with a bunch of friends quite often. I made two recent trips to Lille. On Thursday, Hannah and I went to see Midnight in Paris (great film) and then met up with our friend Danielle and my friend Eileen (who was in town for exams) for drinks. It was a fairly lazy afternoon, but it was nice to catch up. Sunday, I went back to Lille to meet up with Brazilian and his friend. We went to a few museums since it was the first Sunday of the month (First Sunday = Free museums in France). I didn't get too bored, because they both did museums at my speed... FAST. For lunch, we picnicked in a park, and then we checked out the current exhibit at the old train station Saint Sauveur which was really cool.

Yesterday was my 4th of July celebration. We packed quite a few people in our kitchen, and good times were had. I made cheeseburgers with cheddar (not at all common in France), baked beans, macaroni salad (a real hit), and chocolate covered pretzels with red, white, and blue drizzle. Brazilian and friend made cheesecake (and also dressed up as Americans - photos on Facebook), and our friend J. made yummy muffins. We all gorged ourselves on the food and laughed like crazy. The highlights included Hannah who is British having a sudden realization and saying "Wait. This is actually a celebration against us." That cracked us up. One of our friends even brought fireworks. Like legit ones. I'm sure it gave the neighbors a shock when we set them off in a nearby parking lot. It was awesome. Such a good night.

Okay, I promise to try to keep up with this blog more. I don't have a lot planned for this summer, so I don't really have an excuse but that also means I won't have much to write about. I have two weeks planned down in Aix-en-Provence with a weekend in Poitiers. Other than that, just a bunch of tutoring. Seriously, my name has gotten around.