A busy two weeks

So, I realize that it has been over two weeks since I have updated you guys about my new life in France, but I have been really busy finishing up my class, and I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down and write a good blog post in a couple of weeks now. But, since the class is now over (I passed, but if it had been graded, I probably would have gotten an A in it) and I don't really have much to do any more, I now have time to write you guys another sprawling DJ novella. I'll try to keep it short, because there really hasn't been a whole lot that has happened since I last wrote, but I'm not making any promises. Here we go!

So two weeks ago, right after I wrote that last blog post, I started feeling really homesick and lonely. I had a couple of bad days in there (Sunday and Monday) where I just really missed my family, a select few of my favorite people, my dogs, even some of my favorite restaurants and things to do in St. Louis. I'm still waiting for my phone and TV to set up, which will help my loneliness since I will be able to call people randomly whenever I am feeling sad, and I will be able to watch French TV when I am bored. But I did get over it, and my friend Angus contributed to me feeling better, though he may not have been totally aware of it at the time, because he started crashing on my spare bed in exchange for taking me out to dinner. It was a win-win...I got someone to keep me company, he got a cheaper place to crash. It started originally because he can only stay in a hostel for a week at a time, and he had a few days to kill before staying with a visiting friend of his in a hotel for the weekend, so he asked if he could crash at my place. In total, in the last two weeks, he has probably spent 5 or 6 nights here, which is fine by me.

So during the week, it was pretty much just nose to the grindstone and getting my work done. I had a pretty bad lesson two Mondays ago, but my lessons definitely got much better with time, and after hearing some feedback from my fellow students, I realized I have a really bad habit of being self-deprecating which only serves to sabotage myself, and it definitely carries over to my lessons, making them less effective. So, I tried this whole confidence thing and relaxed and didn't make fun of myself or my lessons when giving them, and they turned out much better...more enjoyable, more effective, just all around better. Even I can tell that I have made a great improvement when it comes to presenting lessons in the last couple of weeks. I really think I got something out of this course, which is a very good feeling. And I gained a new skill, which will hopefully not only make me more marketable when I return to the States, but will help me with my direction in life as well. Plus, I made a few friends, so that's always good. Moving on.

The only dinner Angus took me to that I feel worth commenting on was this super fancy (and super expensive) Thai place called the Blue Elephant. He was craving spicy food, and I love anything Asian, so I was on board. I got the Cashew chicken, which came in half of a hollowed out pineapple, and was quite tasty. Angus got curry something or other, which was supposedly one of the hottest things on the menu, but still only barely satisfied his craving for spicy food. French people just do not do spicy like we in the States do, and I know this news may be disappointing for some of my friends who may be visiting and love spicy food. But I have done some investigating into this subject, and I have found a few things that are at least somewhat spicy. For example, they have this sauce called "harisa" (I believe) over here, which is like chili sauce mixed with ketchup, and although it still isn't as spicy as say, sriracha is, it's better than nothing. Also, we got sushi a couple of days ago, and they at least know how to do hot Wasabi over here, as it was as hot as anything I've had in the States. It is probably still lacking a bit of the punch of the stuff we have here, since I am not an expert on hot/spicy, but it was hot enough to make me cry, which is a good thing.

I know this post is already getting long, and I have barely even started yet. But I have two weeks to talk about, so it's going to probably be a little long. I know you'll read it, since you want to know what I've been up to, so stop complaining, you tiny attention span having people, you. Haha!

So one of the coolest things that has happened since I last wrote a post was going to that Techno Parade I was telling you all about. Before I came over here, I remember being bummed out that they had stopped doing Love Parade, a techno parade in Berlin, I believe, because I had always wanted to go to it, but it doesn't really matter now, because I have been to a techno parade, and it was one of the most awesome electronic music related things that has maybe ever happened to me in nearly 12 years of listening to electronic music. I will try to give you all just a brief description. It started at 11, so that's when I got there, at the Place de la Republique, which is only about a 15 minute metro ride from my apartment (not bad at all). They had a stage set up right in this big roundabout, in front of this monument/statue that has probably been there for 100s of years.

When I first got there, there weren't that many people there, maybe a couple of hundred, and I was kind of worried. The music was good though, and the small crowd seemed excited. At 1, the parade started,and there were trucks (literally 18 wheelers with DJs on the back, speakers, and people dancing) lined up all down the street. It was also around this time that the parade saw a massive population explosion, and all of a sudden, there were thousands of people there. Well, I followed the first and main truck for a few miles until the parade passed right by the street I live on. By this time, there was easily a 100,000 people there, if not more. There were trucks playing all sorts of different music, even hardcore, and I was very happy to have experienced it. The vibe was great, everyone was very happy, and the music was fantastic. Some people were following the trucks and dancing along side them, but there were also a ton of people just standing back and watching it all go by. Also, people started climbing the Bastille monument, and I tried to as well, but I couldn't pull myself up on it, so I gave up after one try. I didn't feel like getting arrested in Paris, so I hopped back over the very tall fence, bruising my arm as I went, and returned home.

Let's see...what else has happened? Later that night, I met up with some of my classmates and we hung out in the area by the Moulin Rouge, which we didn't enter (I think it's just a club now), but that I enjoyed seeing nevertheless. It made me wish I had remembered my camera, but oh well. I'm sure I'll be back sometime, though hopefully not by myself, as I have been warned not to go into this area (Pigale, the "Red Light District") alone at night. It was funny though to see all of the sex shops and pornographic movie theaters, etc.

Then this week was just a lot more school work, because it was my last week. Angus stayed over a couple more nights, but we were pretty much just studying for tests and finishing any remaining homework we had to do. We had 3 tests this week: one on grammar, one on phonetics, and one on methodology, and I scored 86%, 89%, and 98% respectively. In addition to that, my teacher said that all of my lesson plans and evaluations and written work was just fantastic, which is why I think I would have gotten an A if this had been a graded class.

I guess it's also worth mentioning that a week ago Friday, I stayed in all night and finished my resume and applied for about 2 dozen jobs. I did go on an interview last Monday, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. They could only hire me if I had a student visa, which I would have to take a probably pretty expensive class at a University here to be able to get, and even then, all they would be able to give me is 15 hours a week. I need something more than that, so I have been looking everywhere for a job, and applying for everything I see, even if it's simply a small private lesson. My goal is to get a full-time job and then do private lessons on the side, but until I find that, I still would like to be bringing in some kind of money, so I have been trying to get private lessons going as well. I even put an ad on Craig's List last night, so we'll see what becomes of that. I am not really worried though, since I have 4 weeks to find a job, but I am going to look every day as hard as I can, since I am now finished with my class and don't really have anything to keep me busy all day.

Hmm...what else. The only other interesting thing that I did this week was go out on Thursday and Friday nights with my classmates to have some drinks and to celebrate our finishing the course. Thursday was fine, but Friday I got a little carried away, as we showed up around 6:30 at this Aussie bar to watch the Australia vs. U.S.A. rugby match, and we didn't leave until about 3am. I had a great time, and it was fun to watch the bar go from a quiet and laid-back sports pub to a crazily packed sweaty dance club, but I definitely drank more than I should have, a fact that wasn't helped by two of the bartenders being very nice, and buying me 3 shots that I didn't ask for between the two of them. Oh well. I had a recovery day yesterday, and I am feeling much better today. Tomorrow, I am going to start working out again (just running and doing push ups and sit ups), and I am excited about that. I also have other productive stuff to do, like job searching and laundry and grocery shopping, so I will be able to keep myself occupied while I don't have anything to do, hopefully.

I have cooked for myself actual meals a couple of times since I last spoke wrote a post, and I wanted to talk briefly about that before wrapping this up. I made mandarin chicken one day last week, and it was delicious. Fresh bell peppers, onions, fresh clementine oranges, chicken breasts, sweet chili sauce, and rice. I couldn't find all of the ingredients I wanted (water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, canned mandarin oranges, frozen stir fried vegetables, or terriyaki sauce), but I made it work, and it turned out very well. But what I made last night was probably the best thing I've made for myself in the month that I have been here. I made chicken fajitas with peppers, onions, diced tomatoes, rice, sour cream, this delicious spice mix and "salsa" that came in a kit I bought, shredded Emmenthaler cheese, and lentils (because I couldn't find black beans). It was so damned good, and I have enough left over that it will feed me again tonight, if not one more time after that. I took pictures, because I do that, and I'm sure they will appear on the face book account that I usually post my pictures on, eventually.

Well, I have been writing this post for over an hour now, and I know certain people are going to complain about the relationship between the frequency and the length of my blog posts, but I have been really busy the last two weeks, so I hope you can handle my super lengthy blog posts. But I should definitely wrap it up now ("wrap that gavel up, b." Chappelle show reference) because I have unbelievably ran out of stuff to say. Happy reading. Grosses bises a tous! (Big hugs and kisses to all) A bientot!