Catching Up

As much as I love to write, I now remember why I didn't do it while I was working in Baltimore. Teaching full time is really time consuming and even when I have a few extra minutes here and there, I a so tired, all I want to do is watch Mot de Passe and nap on the couch. I am only semi-conscious as we speak but it's about time I did a little update.

October:
After some initial inconsistencies in my schedule, things settled into a regular groove and that has helped my sanity tremendously. Glad that got sorted out. My classes are 90% awesome. I have one group that is not super bright and yet there is this handful of guys that think they can just chit chat and giggle to themselves the whole class. Umm... you're sophomores in college. Why are you behaving like my high school students? It's annoying. Otherwise, I am really impressed by my students and I am very much enjoying my job. I have a purpose! And money. Money is nice to have, too.

Jason and I took advantage of the wine harvest season to do some touring around a couple area vineyards. The tour to the Médoc region was just okay, and we learned that their wines are not our favorites, but the harvest day in the Blaye region was wonderful. It was just the two of us and our guide coming up from Bordeaux and we met up with a group of 30ish locals to pick grapes in the field inside the 17th century citadel. No big deal. The rain this year was catastrophic for the grapes so our job was pretty easy. Our day also included a wine tasting, followed by a delicious lunch (including wine), and then a tour of a bottling facility, followed by more wine tasting. And as payment for our work in the fields in the morning, we both got to take home... wait for it.... a bottle of wine. Best value tour EVER.

 

 

My mom came to visit, making her our first real guest, and it was a lovely time. Originally, she had only planned to come for a week but then decided to make it two and do some traveling: four days in Bordeaux, three in Edinburgh/Glasgow, two in London, and back to Bordeaux for four more. It was right during my fall break so the timing couldn't have been more ideal. We did all the good stuff: Dune du Pyla/Arcachon, visited some chateaux in the Graves region, St. Emilion, le petit train tour of the city... Good times! But I think the truly notable part of this whole visit was that my dear mother was able to get around Scotland and England all by herself. My dad has been dragging his feet getting a passport and my mom just couldn't wait any longer. I am immensely proud of her for building this adventure for herself. She came back from the UK with that glow that people get when they travel for the first time and it was wonderful.

 

 


I didn't have much time to break during fall break because as soon as my mom left, I had a weekend full of TFA phone interviews to conduct. Even though it was a bit intense, I feel like I really learned a lot from doing them. Some of the questions made me really think about my own answers and it just reminds me why I got into teaching in the first place. TFA is always good for giving me a little inspiration when I need it.

And now here we are in November.

The weather is getting colder and the rain is back. I'm not sure it ever really left, actually. It was just less intense for a couple months and now it's back to raining almost everyday. Why didn't anyone tell me it was so wet here? I was promised that the constant rain was completely atypical and that it would be better soon. Lies. I suppose I shouldn't complain because it didn't rain this weekend and it is neither unbearably cold nor insufferably hot. On the bright side, if we ever need some sun, Spain is right around the corner.

This past weekend we were in Brussels, which was really fun. Good beer, good food, good people. It was cold and raining (we brought the weather from Bordeaux) but it was a nice time all the same. Look at all this neat stuff we saw!

Classes are winding down quickly (these semesters are so short!) and my course load is looking a little bit lighter for the spring. Hopefully, that will mean that I can pick up some classes at the CEL, which are much smaller and a lot closer to home. I am happy to take whatever work I can get. This weekend was very social: Had a new friend for dinner on Friday night, went out to watch the rugby game last night and had our buddies over for football this evening. I keep telling myself I am going to use my weekends to get ahead for school but it's hard when you have people that you want to spend time with. This is a good problem to have.

Consciousness is leaving me so I will be on my way. À la prochaine!