Like the alliteration I used in the title? I know you do.
The last couple weeks have been just what I hoped to get out of my experience here! Teaching, of course, is about the same as normal. I waver between confident and completely lost, depending on the day and class. My foyer is still dealing with the same issues as usual --- no heat in my room, my shower is a little messed up (my fault, actually), and still no money from the housing people here in my city. Aside from that, however, I've been spending my time in the best possible way.
I went to Geneva with some other assistants on the 12th, which happens to be very close to my city. Important note to interject here--- we woke up at 5 am. I hate waking up that early, but it wasn't too terrible with someone else getting up at the same time and joining me in my matinal misery. We went to CERN together, which is where you find the Large Hadron Collider --- you know, the thing that once it goes to max power might create a black hole that will suck up the entire universe. The tour was kind of like being thrown into a really advanced physics class about halfway through the semester, but still cool. After that we went to the UN, where the girls went on a tour; I chose instead to wander the city a bit and see what I could find. I went to a cathedral, where I got a great picture of the chandelier (my new hobby and photography focal point), and then went to a free museum. The museum had some decent artworks, and since I'm not too picky, I enjoyed it a lot. I like to do museums alone, so that I can spend time on the pieces I like and ignore the rest. Falafel for dinner, and then back to Chambery...
Friday night I hung out with Jennifer, my future roommate, one of Jennifer's classmates and his friends from home. We started the night watching the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy, with absolutely horrific French subtitles. Honestly, I don't know if they even deserve to be called "French subtitles." They were more like... someone typed all of the dialogue into Google translate and then posted the results. We made homemade guacamole and quesadillas (both delicious) and pounded a few tequila shots, as well as some red wine. The wine was not in shot form; I feel that that bears stating explicitly.
Yesterday, the 15th, was spent in Grenoble hanging out with a few assistant girls that I hadn't seen in months. I love that city, especially my favorite restau, Cafe Bootsy. My friend and I made a trip to the candy store --- excellent idea. I loved being able to casually pull candy out of my bag, like it was no big deal, while walking around the stores looking for a new coat. Hopefully the Grenoblians can come to Chambery soon to celebrate me moving into my new house!
Best news of the week, or at least the most important for me, was getting a response from one of my grad schools. I was shortlisted for Northeastern, which means that I will be interviewing with them in a little less than a month! This is stressing me out a bit, because none of my other schools have given any response whatsoever yet, but since Northeastern (which is in Boston) was my second choice school, I'm understandably excited. Now back to studying JDM materials and the articles written by Northeastern's professors... good thing I actually like the topic or this would suck.
I have a good friend that just started at Northeastern! Hope it works out....if not know that the fact that you heard back from Northeastern means a lot because it's a REALLY good school and more good things are yet to come- B
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