For Thanksgiving I ate at an Indian restaurant with three British girls. There were Indians and pilgrims and poultry but it wasn't quite the Thanksgiving of years past. A great feast all the same!
Lately I've been having Ira Glass read me bedtime stories every night. Without a TV and in need of inspiration for lesson plans, I've been devoting a lot of my time to this radio show. Last night I listened to 4 hours of the program. It's surprising how moving people's voices can be. There's no distraction of edited angles, wrinkle obscuring lights, and people reporting with painted faces. I like imagining. I feel like their stories become mine a little too. After morphing according to my mind's eye, they seem to wedge their way into my temporal lobe like they were there all along.
Get ready to be slammed with pictures next time!
samedi 28 novembre 2009
jeudi 19 novembre 2009
I've been having hot face all day with no one to complain to.
One of my classes today made me laugh so hard I almost started crying. I wrote out parts for two skits, both of which were restaurant situations where the manager has to deal with lots of hectic situations. They are "business english" students so I tried to have something to do with business, but mainly I wanted them to be funny. The parts were something like this:
Skit one
You are a manager of a hip new Japanese restaurant. You just got divorced from a marriage of 25 years and you are very stressed out.
You are going to propose to your boy/girlfriend tonight over a romantic dinner.
You are going to break up with your boy/girlfriend tonight. You hate sushi.
You are a prestigious food critic reviewing a new Japanese restaurant. You like to paint in your free time.
You are an irritating door to door salesman/woman who sells tacky "Asian" art to local businesses.
So, then I have the two groups plan out the situation. They come up with a dialogue, how these people interact, and how the manager deals with problems.
Because the pushy saleswoman interrupted a conversation between the manager and restaurant reviewer, she shares a table with the reviewer. They became interested in each other, planning to meet the following night to talk about art. Meanwhile, a very dramatic breakup happens- after the girl(who was actually a boy) proposes, the boyfriend admits he doesn't love her and was cheating on her with her brother. The manager comes out to comfort the downtrodden girl who's making a scene and guzzling champagne. Understanding of her breakup pain, he is conveniently very supportive and takes the opportunity to hit on her.
Skit two
You are the manager of an Italian Restaurant
You are a vegetarian on your first date with someone you met from an online dating service.
You are meeting your date for the first time in person. You have an anger management problem requiring medication.
It's your first day as a waiter in an Italian restaurant. You lied about your work experience on your job application. You have never worked a day in your life and are naturally accident-prone.
You are a cook in an Italian restaurant. You notice your ex-girlfriend on a date.
The waiter was really incompetent, making the angry online dater mad, causing the manager to have a serious talk with the waiter about the validity of his job application. Then the waiter goes to the kitchen after the cook has seen his ex to give him the order. The cook tells the waiter about her and puts worms in the couple's order of meat-free spaghetti. Because the waiter knows he's going to get fired anyway he thinks it's a great idea- he might as well have some fun while he can. After a few bites, the girl has an allergic reaction, then her date goes ballistic, all the while assuring her that he'd never hit her. After lots of yelling between the employees, couple, and manager, the girl admits the cook is her ex. The manager fires everyone.
I was really impressed with their acting skills, they were all hilarious!
And as a sidenote, last night I saw Twilight and all I have to say is...hot bods, you'll see why.
One of my classes today made me laugh so hard I almost started crying. I wrote out parts for two skits, both of which were restaurant situations where the manager has to deal with lots of hectic situations. They are "business english" students so I tried to have something to do with business, but mainly I wanted them to be funny. The parts were something like this:
Skit one
You are a manager of a hip new Japanese restaurant. You just got divorced from a marriage of 25 years and you are very stressed out.
You are going to propose to your boy/girlfriend tonight over a romantic dinner.
You are going to break up with your boy/girlfriend tonight. You hate sushi.
You are a prestigious food critic reviewing a new Japanese restaurant. You like to paint in your free time.
You are an irritating door to door salesman/woman who sells tacky "Asian" art to local businesses.
So, then I have the two groups plan out the situation. They come up with a dialogue, how these people interact, and how the manager deals with problems.
Because the pushy saleswoman interrupted a conversation between the manager and restaurant reviewer, she shares a table with the reviewer. They became interested in each other, planning to meet the following night to talk about art. Meanwhile, a very dramatic breakup happens- after the girl(who was actually a boy) proposes, the boyfriend admits he doesn't love her and was cheating on her with her brother. The manager comes out to comfort the downtrodden girl who's making a scene and guzzling champagne. Understanding of her breakup pain, he is conveniently very supportive and takes the opportunity to hit on her.
Skit two
You are the manager of an Italian Restaurant
You are a vegetarian on your first date with someone you met from an online dating service.
You are meeting your date for the first time in person. You have an anger management problem requiring medication.
It's your first day as a waiter in an Italian restaurant. You lied about your work experience on your job application. You have never worked a day in your life and are naturally accident-prone.
You are a cook in an Italian restaurant. You notice your ex-girlfriend on a date.
The waiter was really incompetent, making the angry online dater mad, causing the manager to have a serious talk with the waiter about the validity of his job application. Then the waiter goes to the kitchen after the cook has seen his ex to give him the order. The cook tells the waiter about her and puts worms in the couple's order of meat-free spaghetti. Because the waiter knows he's going to get fired anyway he thinks it's a great idea- he might as well have some fun while he can. After a few bites, the girl has an allergic reaction, then her date goes ballistic, all the while assuring her that he'd never hit her. After lots of yelling between the employees, couple, and manager, the girl admits the cook is her ex. The manager fires everyone.
I was really impressed with their acting skills, they were all hilarious!
And as a sidenote, last night I saw Twilight and all I have to say is...hot bods, you'll see why.
samedi 14 novembre 2009
mercredi 11 novembre 2009
Just dance
About 4 weekends ago, I went to a kind of formal for an engineering school called Polytechnique. We were with some of the graduates were celebrating their diploma( they are just now getting them even though they finished last spring). I actually teach one class there but thankfully didn’t notice any of my students. They transformed an engineering school into a nightclub. Hundreds of people showed up, there were makeshift bars with people dressed as astronauts serving cocktails, several DJs with a wide selection of pop, rock, French 80s, a karaoke room, one of those light up dance floors, etc. Basically it was right up my alley.
As a result of all my enthousiastic dancing with one smitten character, this excerpt of a message was sent to me a few days later and seems to sum up a lot of things: “Dancing with you, it’s magic. I don’t speak very good english…” As I have said before, dancing in France is never just a dance. The French truly wear their hearts on their sleeves and they fall in love at first sight, or at least they seem to want to, and often believe they do. I had to write a message today, several days late, saying that I want to be friends, but nothing more. I can just imagine him reading and weeping. I feel bad about it but after this past weekend I really had to do it.
With the same theme in mind, another Saturday night took an unexpected turn to the dance floor after a somewhat horrible period of time. It had a been really fun evening drinking with a hefty group of fun-loving Brits, but there was one newly introduced girl who was already showing her true colors to us, though we hadn’t picked up on it yet. She really loves her horse. She spent a long time talking about it to me, and all I could offer as a response was that horses really scare me. That’s when she admitted to being hospitalized several times by her horse, and that she loves it so much she just can’t ever stop riding. This is when I should have realized she might be slightly brain damaged or at least that she’s prone to self-inflicted, destructive behavior. I wondered how many horse calenders she’d gotten over the years.
Right before we left for the bar, she encouraged a round of tequila shots, which were mostly drunk by the girl, 5 if I remember correctly. On the way to the bar I ran into Elisa and her group and introduced her to the brits, but they were off to somewhere else and we had to catch up to drunk girl who impatiently left before all of us. Naturally, when we arrived at the bar, this girl was completely wasted, unable to walk, being sick everywhere, asking for certain boys, and screaming in a really annoying accent that was almost Irish. I think the worst part was that none of us really knew her, so we didn’t know what to do with her. We were very close to where I and another girl live, though she would only go home with one of our guy friends (wonder why?). So, fed up,me and the girl who lives one second away from me headed home, pissed off at this idiot who ruined everyone’s night. After a few steps she suggested going dancing, she said she knew a kind of “dodgy” place on the way back to where we live. So I said, why not, it could only make things better.
After a jack and coke I saw a looming figure out of the corner of my eye, standing basically beside me, but not making a move. I made it for him. My friend eventually said she was tired gonnna go but “Well done Katie! He’s hot, you have to stay here.” So, I followed her advice. This dance then lead me to his best friends’ apartment, where I hung out with a bunch of really cool French guys. They were all welcoming, laid back, and I felt at home instantly. It was weird. And my dance partner has been playing the acoustic guitar since age seven, which made for good background noises during good conversation.
After a night of snuggling, and a day of hangover recovery, I met him on a Monday afternoon till midnight. We wandered around the city for a period of seven hours, stopping at random places, talking about all kinds of weird things and kissing intermittantly. So, I think I’m his girlfriend suddenly. But, there’s a catch, as always. He works on the coast as a kayak instructor and I will probably only see him on the weekends when he has more free time to be my personal tour guide and french slang dictionary. We’ll see.
About 4 weekends ago, I went to a kind of formal for an engineering school called Polytechnique. We were with some of the graduates were celebrating their diploma( they are just now getting them even though they finished last spring). I actually teach one class there but thankfully didn’t notice any of my students. They transformed an engineering school into a nightclub. Hundreds of people showed up, there were makeshift bars with people dressed as astronauts serving cocktails, several DJs with a wide selection of pop, rock, French 80s, a karaoke room, one of those light up dance floors, etc. Basically it was right up my alley.
As a result of all my enthousiastic dancing with one smitten character, this excerpt of a message was sent to me a few days later and seems to sum up a lot of things: “Dancing with you, it’s magic. I don’t speak very good english…” As I have said before, dancing in France is never just a dance. The French truly wear their hearts on their sleeves and they fall in love at first sight, or at least they seem to want to, and often believe they do. I had to write a message today, several days late, saying that I want to be friends, but nothing more. I can just imagine him reading and weeping. I feel bad about it but after this past weekend I really had to do it.
With the same theme in mind, another Saturday night took an unexpected turn to the dance floor after a somewhat horrible period of time. It had a been really fun evening drinking with a hefty group of fun-loving Brits, but there was one newly introduced girl who was already showing her true colors to us, though we hadn’t picked up on it yet. She really loves her horse. She spent a long time talking about it to me, and all I could offer as a response was that horses really scare me. That’s when she admitted to being hospitalized several times by her horse, and that she loves it so much she just can’t ever stop riding. This is when I should have realized she might be slightly brain damaged or at least that she’s prone to self-inflicted, destructive behavior. I wondered how many horse calenders she’d gotten over the years.
Right before we left for the bar, she encouraged a round of tequila shots, which were mostly drunk by the girl, 5 if I remember correctly. On the way to the bar I ran into Elisa and her group and introduced her to the brits, but they were off to somewhere else and we had to catch up to drunk girl who impatiently left before all of us. Naturally, when we arrived at the bar, this girl was completely wasted, unable to walk, being sick everywhere, asking for certain boys, and screaming in a really annoying accent that was almost Irish. I think the worst part was that none of us really knew her, so we didn’t know what to do with her. We were very close to where I and another girl live, though she would only go home with one of our guy friends (wonder why?). So, fed up,me and the girl who lives one second away from me headed home, pissed off at this idiot who ruined everyone’s night. After a few steps she suggested going dancing, she said she knew a kind of “dodgy” place on the way back to where we live. So I said, why not, it could only make things better.
After a jack and coke I saw a looming figure out of the corner of my eye, standing basically beside me, but not making a move. I made it for him. My friend eventually said she was tired gonnna go but “Well done Katie! He’s hot, you have to stay here.” So, I followed her advice. This dance then lead me to his best friends’ apartment, where I hung out with a bunch of really cool French guys. They were all welcoming, laid back, and I felt at home instantly. It was weird. And my dance partner has been playing the acoustic guitar since age seven, which made for good background noises during good conversation.
After a night of snuggling, and a day of hangover recovery, I met him on a Monday afternoon till midnight. We wandered around the city for a period of seven hours, stopping at random places, talking about all kinds of weird things and kissing intermittantly. So, I think I’m his girlfriend suddenly. But, there’s a catch, as always. He works on the coast as a kayak instructor and I will probably only see him on the weekends when he has more free time to be my personal tour guide and french slang dictionary. We’ll see.
mardi 10 novembre 2009
SORRY
i have so much to say, it's impossible to say everything! my internet service provider is a piece of shit. i will go yell at them today and hopefully resolve something and be up and running again. and i need your adresses to write you!
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