Back to school, back to school...

        It’s hard to believe that I have been back in France almost a week. It feels like yesterday that I was baking gingerbread cookies for my brother’s classroom or helping my mom cook New Year’s Eve dinner. As usual, my time at home flew by way too fast, and I find myself, yet again, in the rainy, cold, French countryside.

Christmas doggy! For those of you who don't
know her, meet my dog, Phoebe.

            Overall, my trip home was good (despite getting sick). I was able to spend quality time with my family, focus a little bit on what I am going to do next (who knows), and not think about lesson plans for 2 whole weeks. Exciting. To sum up the whole two weeks in one word, I guess I would say, relaxing. It was nice to be at home doing nothing, for a change.

That's right.

            Leaving home again was more difficult than I thought, well, at least mentally. Physically, it was a breeze. I got bumped up to Economy Plus on United (for someone who travels a lot and always takes the cheap route, 5 extra inches of leg room is a big deal), took a sleeping pill, and was out for the entire flight. Now that is what I call good traveling. I arrived in France at 6:45am Tuesday morning, and, per usual, was greeted with rain and clouds. Does this country ever see the sun? I’m beginning to think I will get that seasonal depression that comes from not seeing the sun, well…ever! At any rate, I hopped a train from the airport to the train station, waited a good two hours (in an open-air station, yay!) for my train home, and finally arrived back at my apartment around 3:30pm.

            My roommate, Aoife, wouldn’t be arriving until 9:30pm, so I had a good six hours to myself to unpack and…sit around. The apartment was freezing since we had turned off all the heat during the vacation, so I sat bundled in my bed looking like the Michelin man with about 20 layers of clothes on. Aoife finally returned and brought the apartment back to life. Instead of feeling lonely, I felt comforted. Until about midnight. That would be around the time that Aoife was exhausted and needed to sleep, and my jet lag kicked in. Only 6pm my time, I was nowhere near tired. I have yet to conquer this jet lag demon. If anyone has any tricks, please let me know!

            Upon my return to France, my school notified me of a change in my schedule. I will now be working Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with added hours to my schedule, effective January 20th. As you can imagine, I did not take this news well at the beginning. I was of the mindset that this change would basically prevent me from going anywhere. And then where would you be? My armchair travelers with nowhere to travel? Well, I am not going to do this to you. Despite having limited time (and resources, for that matter), I will continue to make my way around Europe, not to worry. But I will be traveling a little bit closer to home – day trips to Germany, Switzerland, and within France. Weekends in Paris, Geneva, or Berlin. Not too shabby, eh?

            Thursday and Friday of this past week marked my return to teaching in Saverne. With lessons planned on Christmas and New Year’s, and many of my classes canceled, it was a nice reintroduction to working life. In one class, when discussing hopes and fears for 2011, one student hoped “our romance would continue to blossom,” and feared he would “never see me again.” Be jealous of my admirers.

            In another class, we played an epic game of 20 questions for our final class. Never having heard of the game before, my students were a little confused about the concept. Once I explained the game, and did a practice round as Tiger Woods, they thought it might be fun. However, they had no idea who Oprah or Sarah Palin were. Tsk tsk. But Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber? No problem.

            As I sat down yesterday to look at my schedule, I realized I only have 12 more weeks of teaching to go. That is just insane. Before I know it, I will be back in the US, starting the job search once again. Hey, at least it will be sunny when I do, right?

Well, that’s all that is new over here. After school this week, I am headed off to London yet again and cannot wait! Let’s hope my umbrella gets less use over there…