Summer Reading

It's been a great summer for reading. Some ramblings:

Harry Potter: After nearly twenty years, I've decided to experience the cultural juggernaut that is Harry Potter. I've gotten through the first four books and films and have decided to continue. No spoilers please! I am so thrilled by the world-building and the twists and turns, and I am eager to hear the backstories of the professors. At the moment, Harry is my least favorite character. Hagrid is my absolute favorite. I expect it will take me way into the school year to finish Order of the Phoenix.

La pluie d'ete: I wanted to explore the writing of Marguerite Duras, so I started with this short novel about the two oldest kids in an immigrant family living in Paris. I thought the dialogue was interesting, but wasn't very invested in the characters or the plot. I plan to read Hiroshima, Mon Amour next, mostly because there is much more criticism available about that work.

Holy Cow: I borrowed this book from the library on a whim after I found out that David Duchovny is a published writer!? I thought it was a creative and interesting tale. The whole time, I felt like was reading a book my dad had written. It was all the 2015 slang. Something about imagining my Mulder at his computer writing an anthropomorphic cow going on about how the other animals on her farm are cray-cray was strangely fun.

All the Light We Cannot See: My favorite so far, and I'm not even 100 pages in. I adore the poetic language that Anthony Doerr is using to bring us to WWII-era France and Germany. I am constantly getting lost in his gorgeous paragraphs, and I am relieved that the book is enormous, so I can look forward to a beautiful, long read. Best of all, I know that this book will bring me to St. Malo, a city that is dear to me and in which I have many beautiful memories.

Back on the Horse

...and by horse, I mean bike.

T and I are now bike-having people, and so far we have done three consecutive morning rides.

I'm all in for an end-of-summer reset. But before I get into that, let's get one thing straight: since my last woe-is-me health post, I've had a reality check. I may still feel down from time to time about my lack of progress on the weight front, but I am no longer allowing myself to feel guilt. I know what to do to get healthy, and I can either do that, or not. I will, of course, try to live by one of my favorite mantras: It's not that I want it and can't have it; it's that I can have it and don't want it.

I expect I will go through some phases. For example, during this summer's vacation back in Caen, I was living in a cheese and chocolate fest. And for the last (almost) two years, I have been doing very little activity. This stemmed from a leg injury with a personal trainer and I caught anxiety about working out the leg again for an exaggerated time.

T and I are both looking forward to making healthy choices going into the 16-17 school year. No chips in the cupboard, less beer, and lots more exercise. Here's what we are doing so far:

-Weekly weigh-ins and measurements to keep an eye on our progress
-Daily bike rides around town
-Morning cardio in our (wait for it) newly renovated workout room!
-Smart meal planning - low sugar, low carb, plenty of produce, predominantly vegan
-Blog updates to keep us on-track.

Wish us luck. I feel very positive about this, especially because I have the best teammate in the world.

the day i got 100 passports

French media mail will be thanking me because I already have more books than I could possibly bring back to the USA.

Can I just say that the SPCD in Vichy is exceeding my expectations by so much. First, and most importantly, it is organized as all. It makes Carre International (where I got my degrees last year) look like it was organized by chimps. Seriously. I've been told from day one exactly which parcours I'm in, which professors I will have, which room I'm in, how to access our online platform, everything. Not once has a professor been unprepared or even uninteresting. I have a bunch more classes lined up and I hope that continues.

But what I appreciate the most is that everything I'm learning is practical in class. We spend very little time on theory and much more time on methods of implementation for our very diverse students' levels. Plus, we practice every worksheet and every game so we know how our students will feel.

I just finished my first year teaching and haven't had a real training yet because NJEA was cancelled last year. But I hope they are all like this because I'm learning so much.

New grammar books for my students plus 100 "passports for learning" that I will be using forever.

I'm most excited about the book in the middle, "Les Bulles de la France," which is a collection of Bandes Dessinees. The publisher asked a French comic to make a certain number of strips per theme. Then made educational worksheets out of each strip. It's super adaptable per level and authentic too!







Plus, I'm loving being a student again. Seriously, if I could be a student forever, I would be. Today our group had to do a group exercise where we pretend we decide to buy a house and we have to determine rooms, budget, chores, etc. Guess which group decided to sacrifice a second bathroom to install a jacuzzi and to add 50 euros a week to the budget for our party fund?

En stage

Some highlights of Vichy and the stage (teacher training) so far. 

-Vichy is so small that even when I got completely lost in town last night I managed to find my way and it only took me a half an hour. 

-My host family is wonderful. Super patient, welcoming, and good cooks. Plus, they have an adorable one-year-old and a super animated seven-year-old who loves to talk about any and everything. 

-It takes me three minutes to get to class every day. 

-The classes are well-organized and interesting. Right now I am in a daily program addressing how to favor oral communication in classes. We learned plenty of activities and techniques and it is only day two. 

-My fellow French teachers are awesome! Although the grant was available to Americans, the University accepts people from all over the world. I find myself again in a "petite planete" where we can learn each other's cultures and techniques and practice our French together. I am impressed by how appreciated we all are to one another, and how we are seen as colleagues by the professor, and not as students. It's a nice distinction, to be a party in sharing and not just one expected to learn. 

And the one I'm happiest about: two days in and I already feel lighter in body and in spirit. My class is on the 6th floor and I force myself to take the stairs all the way up 3x a day. I meditate before bed at night. Vichy is known for its spas, and I am going to book myself an Ayurvedic rebalance later this week. Plus, no snacking. No gourmandises except to try something new. I can already tell it's going to be hard to leave. 

But, oh, not as hard as all that, cause in less than two weeks I get to reunite with my famille Normande!

Vichy!

Along the way to Vichy, I:

-Had my first nonstop flight since Semester At Sea.

Somewhere above the Atlantic.
OFK moment: when the fog on the ocean
looks like cake decorations.

-May have gotten another stomach bug from the plane food (veggie as it were).

-Got chauffeured around Paris (dude had a name card. literally).

Nice to see you again, Tour Eiffel! 

-Picked up grant money from a Western Union. It felt really strange.

-Spoke Spanish with an Aregetinian, 3 Brazilians, and a Chinese girl at the station.

-Got to know a super welcoming host family who took me on a tour of Vichy!

-Watched the sun go down at 9:55 pm.

Tomorrow, first day of teacher training. I'ma nerd out when I get my books.