2/6 Super Bowl

My American friend Liz and I wanted to celebrate and share the Super Bowl experience with all of our friends, especially the friends from the UK. When we were organizing the party my friend Charlotte from Scotland said, “so is this like baseball or basketball we’re talking about here?” hahaha Liz and I got a good laugh out of that one.  So we organized a party for the Super Bowl and if you ask me it was the best one because we didn’t actually watch the Super Bowl. We made all the typical Super Bowl party food and we watched funny commercials from past years and then we watched some football bloopers. Overall great night and it turned out that the Green Bay Packer won and Liz is from Wisconsin! Oh this is just to remind everyone but no I didn’t watch the actual game because I’m six hour ahead of the east coast, believe it or not many people asked me this question and I’m in France, I don’t think they would play the Super Bowl on French ESPN (this is another joke as well France does not have ESPN hahahaha).   

So this first picture is an indoor s'more, Debbie, I will have to make this for you when I come to VB, you would love it cause it has Golden Grahams in it. Liz taught me how to make them and they are amazing.

Pigs in a blanket and pizza bites. It turns out our friends from the UK call pigs in a blanket somethign else, sausage rolls and their version of pigs in a blanket is a hot dog wrapped in bacon. It was very confusing for them at first.

Liz made spinach artichoke dip and it was so great!

2/4 Peanut Butter Time

I tutor this little French girl Léa every Friday afternoon for about an hour and half, and she is the cutest thing every. She is so sweet and nice and knows English really well, so one Friday afternoon I was having trouble trying to plan a lesson for her and right before I went to her house I checked the mail. And there was a package from my parents and it had peanut butter it in. Now peanut butter is nearly impossible to find over here is France (even if you do find it there is a really good chance it’s going to taste like crap), they don’t like it and so therefore they don’t eat it hence you can find it anywhere. Well ok, so my lovely parents sent over some peanut butter and I thought how about a lesson on American culture and food. (side note: in her English text book they have sections on culture and one bit is about American food, so they have a picture of peanut butter, pretzels, donuts, pancakes, and stuff like that. I have asked her if she likes any of them but she has never tried them) OK so before the lesson I popped into Carrefour (the grocery store) and I bought some things to eat with peanut butter; like chocolate, celery, pretzels, and Oreos (if you haven’t tried peanut butter and Oreos you haven’t lived, it’s so good) I took out everything and she was so surprised, it turns out she has never tried Oreos either, but she loved everything, the peanut butter and Oreos and the combination of the peanut butter mixed with everything. She was like where can I buy this. I have to say it was my most successful tutoring lesson ever. Now I just need to find some more peanut butter for her!

My new comforter

Wow! Take a look at this great blanket! Isn’t it fabulous? I think so. I just came home from work one day and it was on my bed. (side note: they come into our rooms every 2 weeks to take our sheets and clean them. At first this bothered me but then I got to thinking and that’s one less thing that I have to wash, so it’s actually great.) So, towards the end of winter they decide to give me a comforter but that’s ok because personally I think it makes my room pop and where else would I be able to find this pattern? Lol The blanket is much better than the fleece but it’s so new it’s like trying to wrap a cardboard box around you at night, it’s very stiff, but really warm.

Here is a pic of my old blanket which was just a fleece blanket, kind of looks like a prison bed right? Hahaha

And here is my new blanket… I love it, I may try and bring it home with me! Hahaha

1/27 Mexican night!

Thursday night: Mexican night. So all of us are missing and craving Mexican food. They don’t have any Mexican options here in France but that’s ok because we made little Mexico in Charlottes room. Each of us made some type of Mexican dish and the dinner was amazing. Charlotte made fajitas, Laura made Mexican rice, Liz made guacamole and refried beans, I made nachos, and Robin made Mexican hot chocolate. But I just want you all to understand the amazingness of this meal, because here in France ingredients are limited (as you all know about Thanksgiving, well the same applies for Mexican night).  The whole week we all ran around town preparing for this special meal and well the proof is in the pudding, meaning you just have to take my word for it because I only have a picture of the nachos and nothing else.  No, but really the food was amazing and this inspired us all to have themed dinners every Thursday night. We have decided for next Thursday we are going to have China/Japan night. Why didn’t we just call it Asian night, you ask. Well, I’ll tell you, Asian night is way to broad a category and we decided to spilt Asian night into multiple nights, the first being China/Japan night and then the next being more southeast Asia, with Thai, Cambodian, and Indian foods. Can you guys guess what I’m making? NOPE WRONG ANSWER….It’s not curry… try again… still wrong, (I don’t really know what you just said, so I guess it could have been right.) I’m making Lo Mien. My British friends have no clue what lo mien is but they’ll soon find out. Wish me luck on finding these ingredients.

Isn't my little oven so cute? 

Action shot! So yummy!

1/26 Happy Birthday Cam!

Happy Birthday Cameron!

So since some of the assistants who work here in Laval including myself only work 8 hours a week (I promise you I don’t keep bringing up my 8 hour work week to rub it in your face, but isn’t it great? I mean only 8 hours… a week!) and not the full 12 hours a week, Stephane is constantly trying to find other forms of work for us. I mean, I guess I can’t blame them, they want to get their moneys worth. So this week they recorded us reading Engish children’s books so that French teachers can download the story they want and play it for their class.  So I’m pretty much going to be famous here in France. My voice will be heard all over La belle France (and by France I actually just mean the elementary schools here in Laval and surrounding villages and only if they pick one of the three books I read). But isn’t that cool, kind of weird at first, I’m not going to lie but overall an enjoyable work day. I read the books: What Time is it?, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. Personally my favorite was My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes, even though I’m a little (by little I mean a lot) more partial to dogs but I felt as if this author truly got his point across to the people in his short novel. hahaha but this one was truly the best and I’m trying to find it for my little cousin Caitlin. I think she would really enjoy it. However in some of the books we had to read we came across multiple grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Now I know what you’re thinking, look who’s calling the kettle black, and yes, I’m well aware that I can’t spell and have overall poor grammar but I’m not trying to get this blog published (and something tells me that my audience of my mom, grandmere, and my mom’s neighbor Robin isn’t much of a fan base. ) but they should have used spell check before sending it off to the printers. It did give us all a good laugh.  

1/24 And so the striking begins!

Video conference was really horrible today. These kids have no respect and I dislike them a great deal. It turns out that there are 3 other assistants who have the same school, Bais, as me and Sarah. And guess what, they hate Bais too. They all say that the kids don’t listen and the teachers don’t care and that the students are never prepared. So I’m forming a union against the school of Bais and there will be protests and lots of striking. So take that Bais! Don’t you think this whole striking thing is so French of me? Not to toot my own horn but I must really be becoming a Frenchie. Mom, you proud?