Tickets to Paris

After our lack of energy towards the end of our trip to Dunkerque it was pretty apparent that we could have used a little more rest the night before. That being said, today we met up after classes were finished to take the train home together, and to stop by the SNCF ticket booth at Gare Lille-Flandres hoping to change our departure tickets to Paris. In the essence of saving a little cash we originally opted to take a 7am train. This was partially based on the suggestion by my friend Yann that we come on Saturday morning, and the earlier the cheaper. Anyway we wanted the opportunity do check out the Parisian nightlife, and if we had to leave our house at 6am Saturday morning that definitely wouldn't have happened (redbull's are pretty rare and expensive here). So even though the expectation was to buy completely new tickets and lose the money we had already spent; we decided it would be well worth it (we just got paid).

By luck of the draw we ended up at the counter of a very helpful and patient attendant who was more than happy to do a little research for us, and find an inexpensive train for Friday night. Either he is really good at his job or just wanted to get rid of the confusing Americans, but within a minute he had two or three different options for us. The best part was he refunded the money from our Saturday morning tickets, and by tacking on only nine extra euros we now depart at 9pm and arrive just before 10pm on Friday night. Yann will be waiting to meet us at the Gare du Nord. The weekend can't come quick enough. Oh and another reason we wanted to get a late Friday train is because we are waking up at 3am Friday morning to watch the UO vs. OSU Civil War for the RoseBowl live! LET'S GO DUCKS!

Other than that, this week has gotten off to a good start. The weekend was uneventful and relaxing. Kathryn made a delicious roasted chicken and chestnuts dish, and I assisted with her desert; an unbelievable chocolate cheesecake (picture coming soon). Both of our classes were cut short Today so we were able to spend a little extra time togther this evening. I have my second training session for all the Lycée assistants on Thursday. I'm hoping for two things: The first is that it's a little more informative than the last rendez-vous, and second that the higher-ups aren't too uspet that I haven't played any of their goofy games or sang any songs with my students (what we learned at the last meeting). I just remember my teachers trying to get me to sing in both high school and college; I wouldn't wish that on the 18-23 year olds I deal with. Then again, since I only see 2-4 students at a time we could probably get a good round of "row-row-row your boat" going.

A bientôt,

-Jordan and Kathryn