Let me start the post off with reiterating that my job is a joke. I have only worked one full week since I've been here, which is 12 hours, and now one of my teachers is gone so I don't see a full week in my future. To be fair, there are only three English teachers here and most assistants have many more and many more classes, though I do at some point teach in every single English class in the school, which is unique (I think?) Anyway, last week one of my teachers told me she had a conference in Montpellier on Thursday and since she's the only teacher I teach with on that day, she offered to drive me down to Montpellier on Wednesday night to avoid the miserable train. Therefore my weekend start at noon on Wednesday.I stayed in Montpellier for Thursday and Thursday night where we celebrated Susanna's last night before heading back to Austria. It was really sad to see her go and weird to see her empty appartment where we picnicked on the ground. Fortunately, I plan on visiting her in April, so it won't be TOO long until I see her again. But on Thursday night, circa 1am, I decided finally to commit to going to Aix the next day to visit my cousin! Amanda has just arrived in France about 3 weeks ago to do the same program I did through Hobart two years ago. I took the early train and met her right after her classes got out. I was psyched.
What can I say about Aix? As much as I love Montpellier, and even Boston, neither city really feels as much like home as Aix. As soon as I stepped off the bus into the town center I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, though the POURING rain was doing its best to damper my spirits. After meeting up with Amanda we walked through all the tiny streets of Aix, checking out all the sales that were even better than Montpellier. I bought many unnecessary things, but was able to replace my absolutely destroyedddd black leather boots (sorry Mom.) We went to my favorite crepes place under the road and strolled along the Cours Mirabeau. God I love Aix.
That night, Amanda and I set off to all my old favorite places to go out. Le Manior, O'Shannon's, IPN and Skat, I tried to show Amanda as many places as possible! I saw many people I recognized and got a few nods of recognition myself. The next day we met up early to explore more of the city together. I showed her a nice park where she can hang out in after class, the best places for a cafe creme and we sat by the rotonde for at least an hour and a half. It felt so comfortable to be in Aix again, knowing my way around every cafe, street and store. I didn't want to leave, but my meager salary could not sustain another night in a hotel... thanks Mom and Dad again!Sunday night was the Super Bowl. Being a huge Patriots fan, I wasn't too thrilled for this years big game. Saints or Colts? I couldn't care less. We all gathered at Darcy's appartment where her roommate has access to the channel we needed for some good ol' fashion American sports. We placed our bets and the game commenced. Being in France, we don't get the commentary or the commercials you all have in the States, so during the points you were all being entertained by dumb commercials or stupid John Madden remarks, we were watching the same plays over and over in real time and slow motion. Sighh. Fortunately, the half time show was broadcasted in France!! I'll say it, best half time show I've ever seen. Thanks Dad, for introducing me to The Who.
Luckily I didn't have class the next day, at all, so I didn't have to worry about how tired I'd be... after approximately 1.5 hours of sleep (because the game wasn't over until 4am in France), I packed up my belongings and was off to the train station to get my 8am train back to Marvejols. I found myself a private compartment again and passed out until my arrival at 12:30. I booked it back to the school, dropped my stuff and fell asleep until 5pm. Ate some soup, checked my email, attempted to watch some French TV, passed out at 10pm. The next day I was supposed to have class... but the students were mysteriously missing. Oh well, fell asleep from 10am to 2pm. Today I was supposed to have class at 9am and 11am... both cancelled. What??
Moral of the story... I just had a week off right before my two week vacation. I guess I just took off February??? Guess I'll do it while I can get away with it! Tomorrow, after three classes, I'm heading down to Montpellier for the night, then the next day, me and seven friends start our journey to MALTA for the next week where we'll be visiting our two Maltese friends from the fall semester. After that, London and Dublin... if I wrote what I was doing in March, you wouldn't believe me. This spring is going to fly by.
