pictures

here they are...pictures from vimy and chantilly!!!

back to the real world

i have finaly crawled out of the bottomless pit that is a two week vacation with nothing to do...it was a long hard journey, but somebody had to do it...

the first week was pretty calm...hanging out at the park...a couple evenings at mcewans with the assistants...saw brice de nice with M...

tuesday of the second week i went to the canadian world war one monument at vimy...it's south of lille near arras...it's easy enough to get to vimy, however the monument is about 5 km outside of town...fully knowing this before setting out, miriam, raoul and i had decided the walk would do us good...so we get off the train at vimy and head out of the station (i used the word station lightly...really it was just a stretch of gravel next to the tracks with a delapidated, abandonned station)...so we head towards this panel of signs to figure out the right way to walk...just then this old man drives by in a car...we all joke about trying to look as pathetic as possible and maybe he'll have pity on us and give us a ride...sure enough, the guy makes a u-turn, stops and asks us if we're heading to the monument...we say yes, and he tells us to hop in...five minutes later, we arrive and he walks us into the guide booth and introduces us to the staff...they all know him, turns out he spends most of his days picking up people at the station and driving them out to the monument...we thank him and he asks what time he should come back to take us back to the station!!!! the angel....we tell him 4 and head off to check out the site...

at vimy they have preserved some of the original canadian and german trenches...the ground is still marked by the bombs...in some places there are still huge craters, now covered in grass...it's impossible to mow these areas, because they're so hilly, and because there are still undetonnated explosives, so there are heards of sheep everywhere...the monument itself was closed due to construction, but the park, cemetaries and trenches are beautiful...at 4 on the dot, our french hero came back...he drove us back to his home where he showed us pictures of vimy before and after the war...the town was complete destroyed by the germans...he showed us pictures of his 80th b-day(!!!!) then took us back to the train station and waited with us till the train came...such a nice guy...i hope i'm that active at 82!!!

wednesday i finally saw million dollar baby...i knew the ending already but still bawled my eyes out...friday i headed to the chateau de chantilly, just north of paris...while it's not as impressive and extravagant as versaille, it's a beautiful chateau...luckily it was a nice day and i got some great pictures...saturday M took me to the beach at le touquet...it was quite a drive, but was really beautiful...thanks to all the rain recently, everything is so green...we spent a rainy hour on the beach, but it was fun...

so, all in all, a rather calm vacation, but i need to save my energy and € for my trip to spain with my sister in TWO WEEKS!!!!

now it's back to work for one last week....the last few weeks here are going to go quickly, i know...so i better enjoy them while they last...

word associations make me smile...

1. Detachment:: detached retina
   
2. Regard:: "with all due respect to alcohol..."
   
3. Community:: ymca
   
4. Strike three:: you're out!
   
5. Congregation:: conglomeration
   
6. Generous:: giving
   
7. Pretention:: pompous
   
8. Pregnant:: oh dear god, no!!
   
9. Drinking:: mcewan's!!!! angelus....yum!!!
   
10. Brilliance:: brillo
    

word association catch-up...

1. Great escape:: great expectations
   
2. Cluster:: nut clusters (wasn't that a cereal...with the commercials with the squirels?)
   
3. Wrong place, wrong time:: "i was in the right place but it musta been the wrong time"
   
4. Guided:: tourist
   
5. Forensics:: CSI
   
6. Pros:: cons
   
7. Safety deposit box:: banks
   
8. Quadrant:: quadrangle
   
9. Precisely:: precarious
   
10. Who are you?:: the princess bride
    

word associations make the world go round

1. Horrendous:: hideous
   
2. Home video:: bob saget (or is it sagget? or saggette? who knows...who cares?)
   
3. What a girl wants:: what a girl needs
   
4. Grounded:: ground hog's day...the holiday, not the bill murray flick
   
5. Trusting:: naïve
   
6. Simplistic:: simpleton
   
7. Buzz:: dj buzz kill (that one's for the Dentist!!)
   
8. Balcony:: romeo and juliette
   
9. Roar:: i am woman, hear me roar...
   
10. Hooker:: red light district
    

suprises around every corner...

this country never ceases to amaze me...this morning i woke up to snow...snow, people!!! it's april!!! i couldn't help thinking about the book i just finished reading last night, the secret history (ok, i should say rereading since i read it just a few months ago...what can i say, i really liked it)...in the book they murder a friend and leave the body in the woods to be found but because of a freak april snow storm the body is buried and isn't found for nearly a week...don't worry, i'm not ruining any plot here, this is all explained in the first few pages...long story short - book: great, snow: weird....

i came up to school on my day off to check some emails...it's not uncommon to see packs of students standing in front of the school smoking marijuana before class or on their breaks...what i didn't expect to see was students sitting in their car, drinking beer at noon...and it looked like they had been there for a while based on the display of bottles surrounding the car...now, keep in mind, all of this is taking place not more than 10 feet from the entrance of the school...i can only imagine if the same thing happened outside an american highschool...i'm sure there'd be several local news reports, lots of angry parents, and probably a law suit or two...long story short - teenage drinking in america: all hell breaks loose, teenage drinking in france: eh....

alright, enough for today...natalie is off to lille in a bit to finally finish watching sex in the city season six (i've already seen it, miriam and carolyn haven't and i've really been enjoying torturing them by "accidentally" letting the "ending" slip)...i wish you all a fantastic weekend

gros bisous

don't pop my bubble!

alright...what just happened here???

so i just logged into monster.com to start the job hunt for my impending return to the united states...i was sitting there looking at the link "find me a job" and right then and there, i wanted to just cry...i don't know if it was a mini panic attack or what (i've never had one before) but i couldn't bear to look at that website for a second longer...miriam (who's at the computer next to me) gave me quite a strange look as i jumped up and opened the window for some fresh air...then i jumped around the room trying to litterally shake off the feeling of anxiety that had come over me...thank god we're the only ones in the computer room, the other teachers already think i'm crazy...

i can't handle this today...i'm not ready...

just thinking about hunting for a job right now makes me break out in sweats...let me keep the real world out for just a few more weeks...let me stay in this fantasy world for just a little bit longer, please?

doody-headed nincompoopery!

oh jonny...why must you taunt me so...

word associations

1. Renewal:: spring
   
2. Someone to talk to:: "let's give 'em something to talk about"
   
3. Count:: 1, 1 bat...ah ah ah ah...2, 2 bats...ah ah ah ah...
   
4. Expiration:: the cheese in my fridge right now...
   
5. Upload:: r.i.p. uplister.com...man, i miss that web site...
   
6. Publish:: blogging
   
7. Holy:: holy crap, batman!
   
8. Change in the air:: "call it in the air", jimmy eat world
   
9. Titillating:: tit mouse
   
10. Glorious:: "g-l-o-r-i-a"
    

100th post

in celebration of my 100th post here is a short scene, based on actual events which took place this weekend...

carolyn: (taking a long look at miriam's omi chest x-ray hangin on her wall) hey, miriam, so was your chest x-ray normal?

miriam: um....yeah...

carolyn: then why is there this big lump on one side?

miriam: uh....that's my heart.

deep in the heart of texas...

so the first time i took the country quiz it said i was thailand...the second time, i was israel...but the third time, it got it right...(and yes, texas used to be a country!!!)

You're Texas!

You aren't really much of your own person, but everyone around
you wishes you'd go away, so you might as well be independent. You're sort of loud-mouthed and abrasive, but you do have a fair amount of power. You like big trucks, big cattle, and big oil rigs. And sometimes you really smell. But it's not all bad, you're big enough to have some soft spots somewhere in all that redneck madness.
Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

try the book quiz too...apparently i'm love in the time of cholera...

You're Love in the Time of Cholera!

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Like Odysseus in a work of Homer, you demonstrate undying loyalty by sleeping with as many people as you possibly can. But in your heart you never give consent! This creates a strange quandary of what love really means to you. On the one hand, you've loved the same person your whole life, but on the other, your actions barely speak to this fact. Whatever you do, stick to bottled water. The other stuff could get you killed.


Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.