I'm currently listening to the Muppets sing "The 12 Days of Christmas" (Miss Piggy singing "Five golden rings" and hamming it up, of course). So, obviously, I'm in a really good place.
As we roll onto December from November, I've been thinking a lot about what to do this next year. Things are happening so fast! I can't believe I've already been in France for two and a half months! And I can't believe I come home for CHRISTMAS here in two weeks! Completely ridiculous!
I was actually very productive today! I cleaned/straightened up my entire apartment, went Christmas shopping and paid my rent! Christmas shopping was fun, though I probably wouldn't have gotten anything if I hadn't gone with someone. I'm not one to just aimlessly wander through stores. I'll walk through the mall or something, but I don't usually go into a store unless I see something I want. Going with Sarah, however, made me actually go into stores. Once I actually enter a store, I see things that I think people might like. Let the holidays begin!
I've been unapologetically bingeing on Christmas music. There's always a point each year after Christmas (usually around March or April) where I get tired of having Christmas music come up on my iTunes shuffle, so I go ahead and delete it all. Then, eight months later, when I need it, I have none! This is especially troubling when I'm a six hour flight away from all my Christmas CDs. I've had to be very creative this year, to say the least. Sarah and I bought two Christmas CDs of classic Christmas music from FNAC (a French Best Buy-ish store) today and we're going to split the cost and have great tunes to guide our spirits through this festive time. It's going to be great.
Teaching has been going really well. Some of the teachers have been giving me a lot of freedom with the students, so we can do lots of fun things. For example, some of the students are working on the environment, so I printed off some articles about the COP15 conference in Copenhagen (yes, it's a real thing), and we talked about it, then I assigned them to go and take a picture and provide a caption for something around them that makes them think about the environment and pollution and what not. I decided (the day before their assignment was due) that I should probably do it too so that we could all share and discuss. So, while doing that, I took these very unrelated pictures:
And a picture or two from the Musée de l'Orangerie:
I'll give 5 points to whoever can identify the artist and subject of the second painting. He's super famous....
One more thing to share! A bunch of my American friends and I had a fantastic Thanksgiving celebration last weekend! Complete with turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, yams/sweet potatoes (I know they're supposedly difference...), apple pie, green beans, and anything else you can think of that's necessary for an awesome feast! It was truly spectacular. Props to Libby and Sara for getting up early to bake the turkey and desserts and all. I tip my hat to you. I neglected to take pictures but I'll try to get some from some others and put them up here. There were 14 of us: 11 Americans, 1 Brit and 2 Frenchies. So, out of 14 people, three had their first Thanksgivings.
Surrounded by friends, the wine flowed, the laughs abounded, and the food just kept on coming! Now that's something to be thankful for!
Gobble gobble!
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