"Bonjour Madame! Allez Allez!"

Since I've only been working a few hours a week I've been trying to do some constructive things like reading some classics for the first time. Right now, its War & Peace, that's definitely a time commitment. But I'm enjoying it, especially the parts not describing the battles in great detail. Also I've been going on jogs, which, to make more enjoyable usually turn into walks. But the other day I was jogging along and a few students from my class were at the train station and saw me running and seemed pretty excited to see me outside of class. They yelled, "Bonjour Madame!!" And I looked over and waved, "Bonjour..." I used to dislike being called Madame by my students but also find it kind of amusing so I've given up on changing their ways. And they cheered me on, "Allez, allez!" And jogging, and being caught of guard, I just smiled and said "Merci" which I felt was an awkward response but thats usually how my French is, so c'est la vie. It's nice encouragement though, jogging around a nice, old French town, and kids cheering you on "allez allez." I'm just enjoying it while it lasts now, since its not for much longer!

And one other side note, also about students in France. Yesterday at a class with some new students I was still taking my coat off and the students were all ready situated so they waited, standing up by their seats, for me to take a seat or give them permission to sit down. The students don't enter the class and then don't sit down until they have permission to. It's completely normal here, but I'm always caught off guard by these little signs of respect from the students. And like in the South where its normal to say Sir and Miss, etc. they always refer to adults by Madame or Monsieur. They're not all always little angels, but they make you think so sometimes.

A weekend in London

We spent a rainy, chilly weekend in London a couple of week ago, but no one goes to London for the weather. It was Mareike's first time in London so we saw the main sights, a 2nd time for me. We went to Buckingham Palace this time, which I didn't see last time, and its nice that I've seen it I suppose, but its not that interesting. At least not from the outside. I sometimes can't keep from thinking, while in London, about how much more impressive Paris is. It's not to say that London isn't a great town. It is, there's plenty to see and do, but there's so much more to see in Paris! Things to do in London though, there's plenty. This time around we saw a play and two musicals all in 2 days. The play was titled The Woman in Black and it was a horror with only 2 actors and very entertaining in a small theater with, it turns out, lots of easily startled students! On Saturday we saw a matinee of We Will Rock You to get out of the rain for a bit. It was a huge production with lots of fun music from Queen. Such a spectacle. I never would have thought of going to an extra musical that afternoon but I'm glad we did. Then Saturday night at last I saw Wicked. It was also really neat to watch after loving the music for a few years now. I loved my 2nd trip to London and it was nice having two weekends there that were so different. So to sum up my take on London in a sentence, its a neat city that really calls for a cozy cup of tea with such dreary weather.

Buckingham Palace (the Queen was there, Richard told us, because the flag was raised.)