Internet Woes

Faithful Readers,

Sorry for the delay! Can you believe the internet was out in the entire city of Valenciennes starting Saturday morning? A cow must have chewed though a main wire and the chances of getting something like that fixed over the weekend in France are zippo.

It was especially annoying because so many great things happened this weekend.

Like AMANDA and ANDREW getting engaged!! Congrats you two :)

Other good things:
- Observation finished up fantastically. A girl named Sophie made me a lanyard key chain. The little boy who had been acting up in class was captivated by photos of American football and alligators in the Texas Monthly magazine and started behaving. All the teachers are really nice and two are around my age. I keep hoping we can be friends.

- Went to an outdoor market Saturday morning. You can buy the most ridiculous things at them. 1950s-style aprons. Sushi. Mattresses. 80 different kinds of cheese. Oriental rugs. Animals (cooked, raw, or alive). Shoes (really strange ones). Makeup.

-The refrigerator got plugged in at 5pm on Saturday. I got to have milk in my coffee yesterday. It was fantastic.

-We watched the France vs. England Rugby World Cup Match at a cafe Saturday night. Rugby's great to watch because they don't stop the clock for any reason. Goes by fast. The players are just massive, too. I would like to poke one in the neck. Anyway, half of the assistants are British, so they were cheering against the rest of the French people. So noisy. So great. Everyone was standing because there wasn't much room to sit... And England dramatically won in the last few minutes of the game. The French were good sports (surprisingly) and even played "Another One Bites the Dust" over the cafe speakers when the game was over (although it's possible they don't understand the words).

-Anyway then we talked until wee hours of the morning. It's so interesting talking about culture and politics and life with everyone. The group of assistants here is just great! There must be around 15-20 of us. But not everyone shows up for stuff, so there are normally fewer. It's funny how much English-English translation happens.

-The weather was sunshine again! I love it!

-In French class, we always learned about how much the French love to have "manifestations" or "greves" (strikes). Well, last Friday, the teachers were sent a letter about a strike they're going to have this Wednesday... It was the best thing to see how excited this one teacher got! The textbook was actually right in this case! Apparently transportation workers will strike, too. Good thing I don't need to go anywhere.