I See A Bus

Hello.

Newsflash.

A BUS JUST PARKED IN OUR DRIVEWAY. Here's a picture for your viewing pleasure:


Sure, it's quite small, but it's still got to seat about 16 people making it the largest vehicle ever to be parked in our driveway. Someone honked the horn, too, and let me tell you... it's really special.

At first we thought it was the guy who keeps coming to try and paint our facade, but we quickly realized that it was not a utility vehicle. Then we thought, Aha! Perhaps this is what our landlady does in her spare time. But of course! She drives a bus! It makes perfect sense (but sadly is not reality). A whole bunch of older people got out and started socializing with our neighbors, so we are thinking maybe it's a bus full of their biology professors?

I would of course welcome any other theories you have on the matter.

What I'm Listening To

I don't think anybody really cares what music I listen to, but the beauty of a blog is that you get to write about anything you want. Lucky you! Today's flavor: my musical whims.

A Change In My Life: I'm not really sure what this is from or its origins, but it's an a capella song and it's really nice.

Shine On (Needtobreathe): This band is really good, and I fell in love with them again when I saw their music video on YouTube. Want to feel good about life? Watch it here.

Sarah (Eskimo Joe): Their songs are amazing. I like this one because it's my sister's name, but really I'd recommend any of them.

Also related to music: A fun way to create play lists is to type words into the search box in iTunes and listen to the related songs. Some play lists I tried that I liked a lot were night, summer, star and life. A disappointment was sex... only six songs? Also, I tried bobo which was a huge bust and turned up no songs (though I can't say I was really surprised with that result).

In other news, I'm going home in 3 days! What will I remember from my time in France? I suppose we'll find out when I'm 45 and talking about what I remember.

Constructive Criticism

I've been asking all my students this past week to fill out teacher evaluation forms. Most students have done a really good job filling out the forms, but I must say that while I like reading that my students thought the year was great, it's not really all that helpful. Today, however, I got my first round of highly critical evaluations, and I am really glad to have them.

Most of the criticism was very helpful, but there was one universal comment from this class that really made me feel badly, and I'm only mentioning this in the hopes that if some student somewhere out in the world reads this, they will be inspired to SPEAK UP if they don't understand something.

The situation is as follows: this group of students I have been seeing every other week for the whole year said that they had not understood the lessons at all because I spoke too quickly. Every class I had with these kids I would ask at least 3 or 4 times if they understood, and they usually said yes; when they said no, I would explain slowly in different ways until they said they understood. Clearly, they didn't understand... I'm guessing they would just say they did out of frustration and apathy. I really wish they had understood more throughout the year, and that they had spoken up when they were lost or confused. Perhaps they did and I did not listen? I don't know.

My point is, teachers want students to understand and to do well. This seems like a fairly basic idea, but it's not something that I truly understood until I started teaching. So students, don't be afraid to ask questions or to ask your teacher to clarify. They really, truly don't mind going over it a million times if that's what it takes. Honestly. All parties involved will feel great when you understand in the end.

On another note, one girl wrote that my voice drops at the end of my sentences making it very difficult to understand. I found this comment to be highly interesting because people have told me a lot that my intonation in English has changed, and in particular my voice goes up at the end of my sentences. This is a major difference between French and English (in English your voice goes down, in French your voice stays level), and I just think it's quite interesting.

"La Vie en Oui"

That's what I'm renaming this blog when I get back to the US. It means "Life in Yes" but it's a bit of a play on words because "en Oui" sounds like "ennui" which is "boredom" in French.

This is inspired by my rubber stamp I bought yesterday that says, "oui." I've been stamping everything like crazy, and I want to scan the stamp and use it to make a new banner. The only problem is that I only have pink ink, and so I need to make a choice... either Photoshop the color so that it matches my current colors, or change my colors so that it matches my pink "oui" ink. I don't see enjoying a pink blog, so that settles that.

Somebody just turned off the electricity in our apartment building while I had cookies cooking in our microwave. I need to go restart them now...

Soup... Eat It

This is my favorite soup in the whole world. It's based on a spaghetti sauce recipe of my grandmother's that I tried to make once and accidentally turned into soup. I think you'll enjoy it, but the key is to not measure anything. I'm going to be vague on purpose. Have fun cooking!

You'll need:

• Olive Oil
• Garlic
• Onion
• Green Pepper
• Mushrooms
• Corn
• Hamburger Meat
• Chili Powder
• Salt
• Pepper
• Diced Canned Tomatoes
• Tomato Soup
• Beef Bouillon
• Emmental Cheese
• Red Wine

Pour in approximately 4 tablespoons of olive oil (tip the bottle over 4 times) and put some garlic in with the olive oil. Heat the oil and the garlic up. Cut up and add some onion, green pepper and mushrooms. When they are almost cooked, I like to put in some canned corn, too.

Now add the hamburger... I put in about a half-kilo. Then season the meat with chili powder, salt and pepper. Add two cans of diced tomatoes and about 2 cans of fully prepared tomato soup (however soupy you want it to be). Then add some beef bouillon. When it's all hot and mixed together, add a bag or so of grated emmental cheese. When the cheese is melted, take the soup off the heat and pour in some red wine (the recipe calls for a cup, but I just pour it... I also think Beaujolais wine works really nicely).

Eat it. It's good. And don't forget to drink some wine with it, too!

World Class Pranks

If you have some time and feel like laughing really hard, please watch these videos. I've taken the liberty of organizing them, in order, right here on my blog for your viewing pleasure.

I do have to give out two warnings, the first being that many (if not all) of these videos contain bad language. The second warning is that you ARE going to laugh, but you might feel bad about it. Some of these pranks are, in a word, brutal.

In the beginning:





Escalation:





Utter Humiliation:

I've Got A Job

Even though I had what seemed to be the worst job interview EVER with New York City Teaching Fellows, I was still offered a position.

I must say this is quite some relief because, well, I now have a job. However, these past few weeks have left me significantly less excited about the position than I originally was. I've since found several other very cool schools that I would very much like to be teaching at, so we shall see. Don't get me wrong, I'm still excited about the fellowship program, but I'm just not so sure anymore.

I have three weeks to decide. If I don't have any other job offers by then, I will for sure be in New York starting this summer.

The Miracle

Today I witnessed a real life miracle.

I heard a strange rumbling sound I only hear when either I or one of my roommates is out of the house. I was inside, and Amanda and Hannah were both present and accounted for. Surely I thought my ears were deceiving me.

I crept over to our window, and there witnessed the most shocking thing I have seen ALL YEAR. There was our neighbor, taking the trash down to the end of the drive.

HOLY (you know what). It was remarkable! It's a good thing today was not a trash day... I'm not sure my heart could stand the excitement if she had gotten the trash schedule correct as well.

BaseBockey

Dayewdayuh

The best thing about my morning I think deserved a separate, more upbeat entry so here goes. What happened was one of the kids in my class asked me if he could ask a question. I said sure and he said, "Can you tell me what the word dayewdayuh means?" Call me crazy, but that's like no English word I've ever heard!

I asked him where he saw it on the handout, and he said it wasn't on the handout, just a word he knew. I started to really wonder what word he could possibly be talking about!

I asked him to spell it and he said he had been spelling it: D (pronounced "day"), U (like ew or the "ou" in "you"), D (day), E (like "uh" but with more... e?). DUDE.

I was loving the serious way he was asking the question, and I was pleased to know how to say the equivalent of dude in French (un mec, un gars, in case you were wondering). In the end he did seem sort of disappointed to hear the translation. Next week I've got to remember to ask him where he heard it.

Just Your Average Day

I was supposed to have 10 hours of work this week. Instead, I have had one and a half. Let's review, shall we?

Monday: One of my teachers just did not show up, so class was cancelled.
Tuesday: My normal day off.
Wednesday: Should have had 2 hours of class, both cancelled.
Thursday: Should have had morning class, was cancelled.

Friday is by far the most interesting story. All three hours of my classes in the afternoon were cancelled for this week AND next week (this week they were having exams and next week they are jetting off to England). This leaves me with just my morning classes.

I was slated to have two classes this morning as a substitute for the normal teacher. The first class I see normally on the even weeks (in France they have different schedules sometimes based on whether it is an even or an odd week), and this week is an odd week so I should not have seen this group of kids. However, Since the teacher needed to administer exams, I said I could take her class this week for her. As per her instructions, I was prepared to teach 2 half-hour sections with 14 students each. I found out this morning in class, that I was supposed to have one section of 14 for the whole hour. Tricky tricky.

Next I was supposed to see another group of her students that I had never met with before, so I went to the classroom where they were supposed to be. Long story short, another professor came in, said he had no idea what I was talking about and that he had the classroom for a double period. OK. So where were these elusive students that I was supposed to be meeting with? I had no idea what students I was looking for as I had never worked with them, and so I asked 4 different classes who were waiting for teachers if they were waiting for me; none of them were.

So now I am at home, not really sure where those kids were hiding, and wondering how it is that I continually don't understand what the plan is with this teacher. Oh, well. I am sort of used to it at the point, and in the end it is really no big deal.

Cooking Tip 004: Focaccia

Don't expect your homemade stuff to taste like the stuff in Italy. Well, at least not on the first try, anyhow. (If you have a good recipe, please share it with me. And just so there's no confusion, I'm talking about a salty, oily, amazing bread people... please, no healthy alternatives.)

Cooking Tip 003: Internet Recipes

Internet recipes are not to be trusted. Ask me about that Naan recipe and how our apartment got filled with SMOKE. (Ok, so the smoke was my fault, but I had to add about twice the flour the recipe called for which was, most certainly, no fault of mine.)

While some recipes are good, others are not. Cook with caution.

Music Shuffling

I was watching a video on YouTube (which seems to have momentarily disappeared causing me to be unable to link to it... weird) in which this person randomly selects 5 songs on their iPod to play so people get an idea of what kind of music they listen to.

I find this activity endlessly amusing because when random shuffling or choosing of songs occurs, you'd think you would get a really good idea of the kind of music that person likes, especially since people can control what songs they put on their iPod. After all, why would they put it on there if they did not like it? Ultimately, I find that shuffling is hardly ever a good representation of what people actually listen to. I know when my roommates and I listen to my music on shuffle, every embarassing song I liked once upon a time will inevitably rear it's ugly head.

A while back I played this game (results here) which involves random shuffling. Of 18 artists, I'd only consider 3 of the artists to be among my favorite, and of those three songs by my favorite artists, only one is among my favorite songs by said artist. One out of 18? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that if we're talking in terms of hits and misses, shuffling is largely a big old MISS.

To prove this point, I've got my music playing on shuffle right now. In a moment I will type the next 5 songs that play and determine them to be "hits" or "misses", but first let's define a "hit" and a "miss", just so we're all perfectly clear.

A "hit" to me would be an artist I recognize (sad I know, but I don't know my music all that well), a song I know at least some of the words to, or a song or artist I am really into currently. A "miss" would obviously, you know, be the opposite.

If I were to choose my own list of 5 artists, it would include The Format, Stephen Kellogg, Mika, Needtobreathe, and maybe... Eskimo Joe? But that's not the point of this long, long post. So here goes.

1. In the Mood - Glenn Miller Orchestra: Ok, fine for swing dancing but I'd say it's a MISS, nonetheless.
2. Where is the Love - Black Eyed Peas: A MISS in terms of representing my musical tastes.
3. The Compromise - The Format: I love this group, it's true. However, I've listened to many of their songs over a hundred times (or, you know, 237 times) and this one I've heard only 4 times. I suppose we'll call it a HIT anyhow.
4. Anywhere Is - Enya: MISS. Her stuff is fine, but I don't listen to it on a regular basis.
5. Good Girls Don't Lie - Five Way Friday: Oh! Shuffle redeems itself. This is definitely one of my all time favorite songs. HIT.

2/5, not bad. What have I proved or learned from this experience? Nothing, really. Shuffle is random. I suppose it has its good days and its bad days.

(I must report that number 6 would have been Wah Kazoo with their song Doctor Wah. Now that's more like the shuffle I know and love... the one that plays nothing you'd ever want to hear.)

Returning Home From Being Home

So yes! I was in the US but now I am back in France and have been for five days now. Only two things of significance have occurred, the first being that my sister and I found an amazing store in Montpellier called C&A. At first my sister did not want to go into the store because she said it was a granny store (and I'll admit that there were a lot of middle aged women milling around). However, I love granny stores! So, undeterred, I insisted we check it out and dragged Sarah in with me.

Briefly, this store is super fun. They have really cool clothes, undergarments, socks and jewelry (I bought earrings for the first time since high school). I am so sad to not have found this store until the end of my time here! Alas. I still have two weeks (exactly) so I am sure we will meet again.

Second, I was coming back to France to teach 9 more days of classes. One of these days was Monday, on which I had only one hour of teaching. Today I went in to school to find out that all of my classes for today and tomorrow have been cancelled! So now I have six days left. At this rate my return hardly seems worthwhile.

Though, I am glad to see my students again! They are awesome.

Movies with No Ending

I just watched two films: The Last Kiss and American Dreams. Let me start with the greater of two evils.

I knew going into the movie that American Dreamz was going to be stupid. I didn't expect anything too provocative to come from this film, I was really just looking for some laughs and silly humor. Unfortunately, I didn't even get that. The film is just plain old dumb, and the funniest part (when Omar's cousin dances in the basement) I had unfortunately already seen on the internet (thank you YouTube). The ending is really lame and sort of depressing, depicts the American President as a numbskull (which, let's face it, he may very well be), kills off two of the main characters (taking the movie unneccesarily out of the "feel good" category), and giving Mandy Moore's character an unrealistic new position in Hollywood. Puh-leeze.

I had greater hopes for The Last Kiss which was, overall, a decent movie. However, I hate movies without any real resolution, and this movie certainly did not provide a resolution. Let me summarize the film: Man gets woman pregnant, man screws around with different woman, pregnant woman finds out about man's infidelities, pregnant woman says screw you jerk, jerk tries to get pregnant woman back. The end. Sure, this is perhaps how things go in reality, but the reason I see movies is because I want to escape reality for a little while! I want to see everyone living happily ever after! This movie not only robs you of the happily ever after scenario, but it also denies you any ending whatsoever. Oh, well.

In other news, the job search continues. It seems that when companies are no longer looking for applicants they just leave their job posting online anyway to drive hopefuls crazy. Gotta love it.

Snowstorms etc.

Since my arrival in NH it has snowed. We have had a grand total of about 1 foot of snow! While this is making all my family and friends who have already surived the thralls of winter groan, I (on the other hand) am enjoying seeing snow for the first time this year.

I was only sour about the snow once the other day when I was bringing in wood (we heat with woodstoves). My mother replaced the door knob to the door we go through to bring the wood in. The plus side is that the door now opens and shuts beautifully and we no longer have to perform the full body throw in order to slam the door shut. The down side is that I accidentally locked myself out of the house by pulling the door shut a little harder than was necessary. I had to trudge around our entire house through a foot of snow with an armful of wood to get to our garage and back into the house. This wouldn't have been so bad except I was wearing these shoes completely unsuitable for snow and was soaking wet and cold by the time I got back in the house. Oh, well.

In other news, I have fallen in love (again) with my blender, the Magic Bullet. I've been a smoothie making machine! I can't wait to be back in the US permanently so I can blend to perfection whenever I feel like it. I love the hand mixer we have in France, but nothing can beat the bullet. Really.

Uh-Oh (!!!!!!)

You know how I always said that you could not screw a Mac up ever? I mean, I know you probably could, but if you just click around and say "no" to any messages of the "are you sure you want to format this" persuasion, then you really can't do any harm.

Or at least that's what I thought.

My dad brought home this computer (iBook running OS9) for me to look at. He said it started up really slowly, and boy did it ever! It took about 45 minutes to turn on. I assumed what was probably going on was that there were too many files on the computer making everything super slow. My premeditated solution was to backup the files, wipe the drive, install OSX and put the files back on (within reason). It might not have had a positive effect, but I thought it surely couldn't hurt.

Well, once the computer finally turned on, I looked at the files and there is next to nothing on this computer. Strange. So I started to poke around and found that the computer has the option of running OS9 or OSX, so I decided to switch the startup disk and see what happened.

The computer restarted lickety split, and was working wonderfully! I decided to shut it down and restart once again (where's the harm in that?), and this is where it got tricky.

I turned off the computer, waited 15 seconds or so, and pushed the power button. Nothing. So I pushed the power button again, and again, nothing.

I've tried taking out the battery and putting it back in, starting with and without the power cord connected, but really the thing just refuses to turn on. This is really a very very very large problem, and for the first time ever with a Mac, I am stumped as to what could have happened.

Suggestions?

Hello, world!

So I've been in New York City the past few days and I had an interview for New York City teaching fellows. The interview was, in a word, disastrous, so I am currently researching other job opportunities.

My favorite part of the whole ordeal was when the interviewer asked me what I thought teaching in a high needs school would be like, and (not wanting to totally bash the children in high needs schools across New York City) I responded by saying their level of learning is lower than standard, the students' levels across the board may vary greatly, the students are tougher and perhaps have more difficult family situations, and the testing scores are often lower than other schools in New York. The interviewer responded to this by telling me that the students are outrageous and obnoxious, with varying levels of behavioral issues, and concluded by saying that, "the high needs schools in New York City are certainly not like Miss Hall's School."

Ouch.