Schedule Changes: School and Vacation

Since returning from the States not too much has been happening here in Lille other than the start of our second term of school. Both Kathryn and I have had our schedules changed around a bit. Her more than I and more than necessary. One of her schools, Turgot, got the brilliant idea to count the actual minutes that she works rather than the class periods. While teaching little kids, it is hard enough to keep their attention for the five minutes it takes to explain the rules of BINGO let alone keep them entertained for an entire hour's worth of English lessons. For this reason (I assume it's the reason, but it is France so who knows?) her class periods last 45minutes each; so even if she teaches twelve different classes that does not amount to twelve hours of work. Of course they are not taking into account how much time she spends preparing for each one of the classes. How could they when a third of the teachers cancel class on her just minutes before she is scheduled to begin? They also don't account for the hours she spends waiting around between classes because they refuse to group any of her English lessons together. This leaves her with large gaps of time filled with nothing but awkward silence alone in the lounge because all the other professors are too busy shut off in their cliques gossiping. So currently Kathryn is in the midst of a scheduling conflict created by the simple fact that all but a select few of the teachers she works with has any intention of assisting, and by "assisting" I mean telling her when they plan to have an English lesson.

I on the other hand have had a much smoother transition into my new schedule. Unfortunately I no longer have Wednesdays off and now have to work everyday! Of course I only have one hour of class Tuesdays and Wednesdays (and an hour commute each way), but c'mon, how can they expect me to be productive with only TWO days off per week, What is this Soviet Russia?!? Anyway, I am now working with a new BTS class, and am having them discuss their reports on the summer internships they completed this past June. So far things have gone well, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I once again am speaking with the best of the class first, and it will all be downhill from here. Oh well...at least I should be getting an entertaining class fieldtrip to London out of it come January 19th!

The big news of the past week is that Friday was Kathryn's birthday. I had lots planned including pasteries, flowers, dinner and a movie, but some class scheduling conflicts got in the way and I had to make a few modifications on the fly. I still think she had a pretty good birthday, hopefully. After I finished with my day I picked up some lunch for the both of us from a little sandwich shop close to my school, and brought it home with a bouquet of roses. That went over well. Kathryn was not feeling in top shape so we just hungout for a bit, and caught up on some American television shows that have been streamed over the internet. We had eaten lunch in the mid-afternoon, and we spent a little longer than expected getting ready to go out for the evening so we just grabbed a quick bite before dashing out the door to catch the tram into the centre-ville. Next we went to a little brasserie that we have been to a few times to have a little desert. Kathryn had an "assiette gourmande," or a mini tasting platter, and I had a very delicious tiramisu (Kathryn ate half). We paid the bill as soon as the food arrived because it was important we were not late for our final event of the evening: Le Majestique Cinéma to see Avatar in 3D. It was in English with French subtitles. We had considered seeing the French dubbed version, but we had heard so many good things about the movie and figured if we had the opportunity to see it in English we should take it. The movie was fantastic! I had never seen a film in 3D before, and the graphics and special effects were amazing. My only problem with the film was the general plot, and overall storyline was strikingly similar to that of Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. I'm not complaining though because it really was exciting and entertaining.

That was the end of our night and Kathryn's birthday. Seeing as we didn't get a chance to go out for a fancy meal we will probably make up for that sometime soon. The only other interesting tidbit from this past week came when we discovered a special deal by Ryanair for flights costing only £4 each way. That being a deal we could not pass up we booked tickets for our upcoming February vacation to the Spanish island of Ibiza. I don't know too much about the island, but at the very least it should be a great escape from the below freezing temperatures and almost daily snow flurries of Nord-Pas de Calais.

A bientôt,

-Jordan and Kathryn