Thursday, December 16, 2010

Raclette Dinner Party, Brasserie Georges, and Xmas Surprises

I'm at Laurence's office.... and miraculously she has a meeting all afternoon so she offered me her desk and computer. I feel so detached from everyone! I have so much to tell you about...

Let's go back to Tuesday night. After the painter left (the electrician was already gone and finally finished!), I cleaned up the apartment (just a little bit) and relaxed some before Elise, the teacher who has 4 classes at the Signoret school, came to pick me up around 7:15pm. She's a very nice person, but so nice that she tries to listen to my slowly formulated sentences and try to guess what I'm trying to say by finishing my sentences. Usually.... she kind of takes what I'm saying in another direction, so it's sort of hard to stay on track of what we're talking about.... but for the most part I like her very much. We found the house of Cindy, the teacher who did the internship in Fairfax, which was located not too far from the school. I think it's a rather large house because she lives there with her parents, sister, and her own family. I only saw the living room and kitchen, so I can't be sure, but it was a very pretty house.

Of course, a French party that starts at 7:30 doesn't actually begin until 8, and dinner doesn't begin until 8:30/9. So we had the very french apèritif (pre-dinner drink) of rosé wine and jus de pamplemousse (grapefruit juice). I was hesitant at first, but I have to say it was pretty delicious. After playing the wii, sitting and chatting for awhile (the teachers I don't work with asked me if I'd be willing to teach a few English classes for the other levels... I of course said yes since I don't have much else to do in the afternoon after school in the morning. But after everyone started asking me, I could feel myself getting bright red... haha) and the potatoes had been cooked, dinner was ready. Since I only teach with 5 teachers, 2 of whom were present at the party, I didn't know very many people. I do eat lunch with several of them, but I'm probably the least comfortable talking with this team of teachers. There were also 2 other teachers who were there that I had never seen because they work there on days that I am not there (since so many of these teachers work at mi-temps, or half-time). One of these 2 teachers was very vocal and very funny, but it was obvious she enjoys being the center of attention. During dinner, I ended up sitting next to her, which was fine by me because she often asked for items at the other end of the table that I would not have asked for in my timid French. I found out later that she lived in Richmond, Virginia of all places, for 5 months while her husband was on business. The world seems to be getting smaller!

The raclette was yummy, as it always is. Cindy had set up 3 raclette grills, like the one at Laurence's house, and we all passed around the charcuterie, the cheese, and the salad. After dinner, the deserts were brought out, my American cookies (the much talked about hehe), a very dry cake that I didn't enjoy much, chocolates, and 2 different types of arab pastries. I tried them.... but I think they were too out of my comfort zone to fully appreciate.

After everyone had eaten until they wer over flowing, we sat and talked some more.... well a select few continued talking, while the majority of the 13 or so people there sat quietly digesting, yawning, and wishing we could go home. By about 10:30, I whispered over to Elise that the painters were coming to my house at 7:30 the next morning. She kind of made an 'oh gosh' gesture... and I thought we'd be leaving for sure. But it seems that it is rude to leave a party until the last person has finished talking.... and the woman next to me just wouldn't shush. So, by about 10:50, Elise turned to me and said, "Let me know when you want to leave, I know you have to get up early." I was like.... uhh can we go now? So once we got up, so did everyone else. We helped clean up and we're out the door by 11:05. Thankfully, with my ride home, I was in bed by 11:30 and up the next morning with enough time to run take a shower and open the door for the painter, tugging my arms through my shirt.

So... now we're on Wednesday morning, when I went to do mu laundry in the frigid cold. It wouldn't have been so miserable if the wind wasn't so whippy and I didn't have to sit in the cold laundromat for an hour.... but by the time I was walking back, I thought I'd never defrost.

After dropping off all my laundry, I headed into Lyon to meet Hannah, Caroline, and Lindsey for lunch at the fancy Brasserie Georges that we were supposed to eat at for Caroline's birthday. Not only was our waiter very funny, but he was also very polite to us English-accented French speakers. He encouraged us to speak French amongst ourselves, while giving us advice in an overly dramatic American accent. It was nice, though, that he treated us like normal customers and not like we shouldn't be there... like you might think could happen in fancy French restaurant. Anyway, our food was spectacular... I ordered the Noix Saint Jacques, which was scallops in a leek fondue sauce with parmesean cheese baked on top. It was amazing. The other girls all got the same thing... a pistachio sausage-y thing that they said was also amazing... I'm not much of a sausage person even though it is a big Lyon thing. For desert, I had an ile flottant with delicious creme anglaise ane pink pralines. From the fancy Christmas decorations, to the meal, to the service, it was an excellent 25 euros spent.

After lunch, I hurried home to get out of the cold. It was just SO cold yesterday! Aftersome hot cocoa, I found myself fast asleep on my couch.... guess I'm glad I didn't have much else to do!

This morning, I went to school, curious as to how my morning would go. Murielle told me she would still have a replacement... but that I could still do Christmas bingo. I saw Anne-Laure on my way in and she told me Mr. Iken wouldn't be there, so I'd be working with the CM class for 2 hours and her class after the break like normal. So I took one part of the CM class while the replacement took the other half to cook goodies for the big taste-testing thing tomorrow. With me, we played bingo several different ways... until the bell sounded for the recreation. It turns out that the replacement was mistaken and didn't realize that I had to go over to the CP class eventually. I told Anne-Laure, and she was like, well? you're supposed to come with me now, so don't worry about it! We always finish early, so I got to work with the other half of the CM class before the bell sounded for lunch..... but things just don't run quite as smoothly when Murielle isn't in charge.

At lunch, Murielle came in for a meeting and to bring cake for her birthday that was last week. She asked me to stay around for after the meeting, so I kind of ate lunch by myself for a while until the other teachers came in to eat. When the meeting was finally over, Murielle cut the cake and brought out a bottle of Champagne, which she didn't drink due to still being fairly sick with kidney infections. Mr. Iken came back for lunch too and he opened the bottle of champagne. He asked who wanted a glass and Anne-Laure said, "I'll have some... I'm not driving the bus to swimming this afternoon," lol. And then, after a few minutes, Mr. Iken went to pick up his glass and went for the bottle instead, just about ready to drink from the bottle. I looked at him with big eyes, thinking.... maybe the person who opens the bottle, drinks from the bottle.... but he saw me looking at him and went, "Oh my gosh! I just about drank from the bottle. I didn't even mean to. I need to go on vacation." It was so very funny.

Before I left, Murielle gave me a very nice Christmas basket with all sorts of goodies. She said that if she and her family were in-town for Christmas, she would have invited me over. But since she couldn't, she made sure I had something special.... how nice! AND, she gave me a bottle of champagne for me and mon papa!

On the way here, I saw the bus with Anne-Laure's class waving at me with wide eyes. I love this school:) Tomorrow, I'll be going there for Christmas lunch and the Christmas taste-testing party for the kids in the afternoon. I'm so excited!

Well.... I'm getting distracted by others here in the office, so I'll stop here, but I'll try to find a way to write tomorrow before I head to la Suisse on Saturday!

Reste cool :-)8

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