la poste again

I had a nice couple of lessons at my first school- some Gingerbread Man and Very Hungry Caterpillar action in those classes. It's adorable to hear the French kiddies try to pronounce "caterpillar." It's also pretty adorable to hear even the older kids try to pronounce "Gingerbread Man." It usually sounds more like, "Gingerman man"- but hey- it's a hard 4 syllable phrase to say!

I left as soon as possible from my first school feeling a little weird, so I went straight home to take a nap and eat lunch. I felt 10x better after my nap and went off for my last lesson of the day with a a class at my Tuesday school. It was almost hot while I sat waiting for the tram to arrive.... and we had another a gorgeous bright blue sky!

During my lesson, I told the kids they could ask me 5 questions about the US to start off, if they had any more questions (they asked a lot last time as it was my first time with them). One of the first questions someone asked was why I was wearing a pink shirt and white pants. They were convinced I was dressed for another holiday (lol- last time I was wearing green for St. Patrick's Day). Kids are too funny:)

We did my emotions/colors activity where they listen for color words, order them, and then order the emotion vocabulary that corresponds to the color I read in my story. I was glad that even though they don't really know their colors very well that it still worked out. If nothing else, it was a great introduction for them... and they got to hear about how I missed mac and cheese and my family (when asked, "What do you miss most?"). In reality, I don't miss mac and cheese anymore because I've stocked up from previous packages.... but that would be something I'd be missing a lot. I can't think of many other things I miss that much (I do enjoy French food too!). Except for maybe Mexican food.... and bacon. But those can wait.

Speaking of packages and things I miss- I went to the post office to retrieve what I thought would be something from the phone company, but it was a package from my friend Emily! Inside I found lots of Easter candy and a mix for cookie brownies!!! Hurray! I miss both of those! hehe... Actually she sent me a really funny/cute card that had my face in a picture of a dog that said, "Come Home Lindsay." Get it?

The only annoying thing about my nice Easter care package was that the plastic Easter eggs, that were full of candy, had been opened by someone at the post office. I'm sure they were making sure that there weren't drugs or something in them.... but all of my candy was either crushed or melty. (Don't worry, still tastes the same, I sampled it to make sure lol). I will hopefully make the cookie brownies this weekend with Kelsey who's coming to visit Friday and Saturday night. She thinks she's getting a visit to Lyon. What she's really getting is a visit to my apartment with the occasional trip to Lyon (haha jk, but if I'm not feeling too great, that may be the case....). At least I will have cookie brownies and wifi to entertain her with:) Let's hope I get some rest tonight and feel great with this beautiful weather! (But don't worry, if I'm stillll not up to speed, I'm going to go back to the doctor next week!)

Anyway- I got my letters sent out and should be all set with both closing my bank account and DSL line. I feel pretty good about how much I got done today.... but I have to go to bed now to get up and clean before my visitor gets here!

Reste cool:)

la poste- buff (+ pics of saint-priest)

I've had an extremely productive day! I got up early to do laundry and what a perfect day it was to be outside! I brought along a wedding magazine a friend sent me to read while I waited, so the time flew by, sitting with my fellow Saint-Priestians doing their laundry (a couple of old men).

I came back to my apartment to find a package received notification in my mailbox and lugged my wet clothes upstairs to hang on the wrack. Before going anywhere, I warmed up some leftovers, talked to my mom, and worked on the letters I need to send to the phone company and bank to officially state that I would like them to end my accounts. I got an email from Elise with a model for the SFR letter (for my neufbox) and she mentioned that I should have them close my account April 17 because it may take up to 10 days for it to actually happen.... and then for them to send me my box. So if I were to put April 28, I might not get my box in time.... and that would be a mess. So- I'm going to risk being without internet a few days before I come home. Oh well- I was able to go several weeks at the beginning without reliable internet.... hopefully I can last just a week and a half more. Perhaps the free wifi will play nice and work for me for a few days if I need it???

Anywho- I figured since I was having such a productive day... I might as well keep going and go pick up my package. I brought along my camera to take sun-shining pictures of Saint-Priest's "downtown" and was glad I did. The stupid post office, which has hours posted outside their building (and online... which I checked before leaving), had a piece of chart paper outside stating they would be closed between 13h-14h (1-2pm). My guess- they wanted an hour break in the afternoon sun! But of course I got there about 1:10.... so I decided I'd take my time walking around and pick up a few groceries. I took pictures of my neighborhood Carrefour Market- it has 2 whole rows of cheese... which I took a picture of to show you just how much the French really do love their cheese.

After my shopping trip, I walked back to the post office and took a few pictures around the main drag- the town hall, library, cinema, and post office are all connected (among other things in this stretch of 70's style architecture). It's definitely not the prettiest part of my little town, but it's right by my apartment and it's where I do a lot of errands... so I thought I'd show you!

I waited outside for a good 20 minutes with my bag of groceries... I probably could have taken them home and walked back in time, but I kept thinking they'd open up early. Nope- 5 minutes late actually, and of course the other hoards of people rushed inside. I didn't really mind because I knew I had nothing big to do later, so I waited in line with my package slip. When it was finally my turn, the lady scanned it and said, we don't have it yet, in fact (the French say en fait a lot- it's kind of like how we say "actually" or "as a matter of fact"). I thought well how can that be... I have a package received notification.... and they marked the box saying that I wasn't there to get the package..... the woman pointed to the date- March 24, or tomorrow. I left shaking my head.... I waited in line and fiddled around town to be told to come back tomorrow for a package that I got a notification for.... today. Well that's a new one.

Anyway- that was my day in a nutshell. Going to go review my lessons for tomorrow, watch a tv show on my computer, and head to bed!

Enjoy the pictures of Saint-Priest!

Reste cool:)