Master Class

Lessons from Homer

2012-01-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

"... which means," I said, wrapping up the overview of The Iliad and The Odyssey that kicks off the unit on Greek mythology, "and this is important to remember, if you ever find yourself in the middle of a Greek myth do NOT get proud. The gods do not like hubris."

The students laugh appreciatively. Chris raises his hand, "How will we know if we're in the middle of a Greek myth?"

"Easy," Sam jumps in, recalling the statues and paintings I had included in the overview, "everyone around you will be naked."

This time I join in the laughter, too. But when I think about it, "I don't know, Sam," I say, "the last time I was surrounded by naked people it definitely wasn't a Greek myth."

P.S. Bonus Humanities class quote: "So, if the Egyptians really liked music, they might paint the Eye of Pod in their tombs?"

Hour 18

2012-01-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

While waiting for the last debate to wrap, I made a dash to the bathroom and came across half my team sleeping as you see here.

We left the school at 11:05 PM last night. Not much sleep was had.

C'mon last debate! We're tired!

Out of the Frying Pan...

2012-01-23T21:04:00.001-07:00

As of this morning, I finally got that whole field trip mess settled! Bus requests are in, check requests submitted, permission slips are handed out, done!

Sadly and unsurprisingly, that has not resulted in less work. Instead, I am in the throes of getting the Speech Team ready for State this weekend while juggling all the other school/musical stuff. Beyond practices before and after school, all of the logistics of taking the team to State are plentiful and cumbersome. Each step requires a multi-group negotiation similar to the field trip steps, as I handle the communications between the students, the administration, the parents, and the managing party (the hotel, the state speech board, the hosting school's PTSA, etc.). Arranging for food, lodging, and competition rights for a group of students is not a quick task, and I look forward to the days when I can use my planning period to simply, you know, plan. And maybe grade papers, too. Oh, wouldn't that be loverly?

I did get to spend a delightful weekend with the parents. They braved snowstorms in the Rockies for a quick weekend break of shopping, restaurants, and Jack-time. In the course of our Saturday excursions we visited the new Fancy Tiger location and, to my delight, even threw in a trip to Tattered Cover.

I want to dive into the two new craft projects I have sitting on my countertop (the result of the Fancy Tiger expedition) or the new book on my Kindle (via Tattered Cover). Instead, I am working my way through a wicked case of writer's block as I try to explain in essay form why I want to study Chaucer this summer.

It's tricky to fight writer's block when I leave rehearsal at 5:00, get gas, run to the grocery store, make dinner, sort laundry, do some banking, clean my sink, and then realize that I have 20 minutes until bedtime and must resist the call of Zelda/crafts/new book and instead choose between 20 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes of trying to put Chaucerian thoughts onto a dauntingly blank Word document.

The Chaucer-struggle was fought tonight, although it is far from vanquished. I must to bed now, but I go with the hope that I shall eke out an enticingly brilliant paragraph or two again tomorrow night.

Coulda Been

2012-01-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

I went visiting teaching tonight. My companion and our visiting teach-ee are both a little bit older than me and are long-timers in the ward - they've taught each others' kids in Primary and Scouts and can recall old presidencies and ward events from long before I moved here - so I spent a good chunk of the visit listening to them ask and share about their kids. They spend their days working and driving their kids to various activities and having dinner as families and watching Downton Abbey with their husbands when they get home for the night while their kids bake muffins and do homework in the next room.*

That's the life I fully expected I would have. Granted, I didn't necessarily imagine Downton Abbey in particular, but I never imagined that I wouldn't be a mom, wouldn't be married, wouldn't be living that kind of life.

It's hard to shake off what I spent so many years expecting to happen. It's hard to realize that I'm past the "all my friends are getting married" and "all my friends are pregnant" stages and am now in the "all my friends have multiple babies and some of those babies are almost teenagers" stage.

Being courteous people, Lisa and Cindy include me in the conversation with the question that anyone who knows me even a little always asks - "What's your next trip?" I say that I'm going to New York in a few months to see an opera.

"You're so lucky," they say like always. "Good for you. You should do stuff like that while you can."

I am lucky. But they are too.

* Side note: I thought this was a funny detail from the conversation because it reminded me so strongly of my parents' ritual - all three of us kids knew very well that we were not to touch the New York Super Fudge Chunk Ben & Jerry's ice cream because it was Mom and Dad's "grown-up" ice cream to eat while watching Northern Exposure. To this day when I go home to visit and Mom or Dad offer me a cup of that flavor of ice cream it feels like a very grown-up treat I'm being allowed to have.

A Much-Needed Break

2012-01-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Last week was a crazy one at school. Not an atypical craziness, mind you, but rather the kind that reminds me that this is what work will be like for the next few weeks and/or months.

I spent most of my non-teaching time trying to arrange three field trips for the term. Here's how it went:

1) Contact the theater to get potential dates and prices.
2) Float dates and prices to class, make sure all are on board without schedule/financial conflicts.
3) Propose idea to principal, two secretaries, assistant-principal, and athletic director.
4) Principal and all approve, call back theater to book tickets.
5) Theater informs me that they have since sold out of that performance. Would another date work?
6) Repeat ad nauseum.

It truly took me at least three rounds of that procedure to schedule just one field trip. The fact that I was trying to make three happen just compounded the issue. When the athletic director at our school pulled me out of rehearsal after school Friday to inform me that a district championship basketball game has been scheduled for the same night as a drama class play (which I scheduled back in August), I had reached my wits' end (or is it "wit's end"? Is there more than one wit?). He told me we could do both at once, but I pointed out that the gym shares a wall with the theater, and when there's a game on thumping and cheering echoes through as clear as day. Grr.

I'll go back to the calendaring mess tomorrow and keep trying to sort out schedules. It's one of those things that would be so much easier if the school just maintained a shared and constantly-updated online calendar, but they will not break away from their old habits (that is, two separate calendars managed by two separate people kept in paper form on their desks).

Thus I welcomed this weekend with open arms. I had very little I had to do this weekend, so I did an awful lot of what I wanted to do - I read 2.5 books (one of which had me sobbing in bed at 1:00 AM. Literally sobbing. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful book. But it's about two teenagers with cancer, so you can just imagine), played Zelda, watched Downton Abbey, did some housekeeping chores, joined Rachel for Zumba at her rec center, spoiled myself on a Whole Foods grocery store run with a basketful of delicious produce, and so on.

Zumba was a first for me. It wasn't my favorite kind of workout - it caused too much stress and tension because I focused too much on trying to do the dance steps correctly. The teacher wasn't great at giving cues, and I'm not very good at just relaxing and dancing (something the instructor kept yelling at us to do). The tenser I got, the more stressed I became about not relaxing. I wasn't anywhere near keeping up with the instructor or Rachel, but I did hold my own against the grannies in the back row. While it wasn't a workout routine I'll seek out in the future, it was a good one and I enjoyed working out with a buddy. It reminded me once again how much happier and healthier I feel when I have enough time to put in a solid workout.

I'm not looking forward to going back to being crazy-busy tomorrow, but I can handle a four-day week with the promise of a weekend with my parents at the end of it. I just have to do an evening with all of the speech parents before I get to see my own.

Because of the loss of several speech programs in schools across the state, our calendar of meets has been a lot lighter this year. While I for one am thrilled about losing less Saturdays to 14-hour speech meets, the team really does need another one before State. We had one at the beginning of December, then nothing until the beginning of January, then nothing until the big one at the end of the month. It's too long of a stretch to keep up their skills and performances. There were a few schools hosting this weekend and next weekend, but they are all over 3.5 hours away. I put my foot down, not wanting to stomach a 3-4 hour bus ride across the Rockies in January.

As a compromise, I offered instead to host what I titled a "Sweet Speech State Send-off." This Wednesday the team is doing a pot-luck dessert bar and performing their State events for parents and whoever else wants to come. I'm keeping it as low-key as possible, but I think having a "public" performance will give the students the focus they need to work on their pieces before the next and last competition of the season. Hopefully.

L'Elisir d'Amore

2012-01-11T20:23:00.001-07:00

Because I can't stand not having a trip in the near future...

Because I didn't have plans yet for Spring Break...

Because Jason mentioned that he was going to see this the last weekend of my break...

Because it's starring Juan Diego Florez and Diana Damrau...

Because they had a few tickets left...

I'm going to see L'Elisir d'Amore at the Met in March!

(arms straight over head) WHOO!

Although I probably should celebrate that more like a grand dame and less like a sorority girl.

(claps like Dumbledore) Hurrah.

I don't have plane tickets yet or a place to stay (details, details), but by golly I've got opera tickets!

And in case you don't click through my links, let's look at why Juan and Diana are worth flying to New York:

(Skip to :57 to get right to the good stuff)

(Skip to 2:10 to get right to the good stuff)

I also pointed out to Jason that Newsies will be playing by then.

"True," said he. I was confused by his lack of enthusiasm.

"Boys! In suspenders! Singing and dancing!" I eloquently explained.

He did not understand. This is why I need to see the show with Rachel. She understands the appeal of boys in suspenders singing and dancing. She will be a cougar with me.

See? Hot.

(If they don't keep the one-fist-beating-while-shuffling-in-a-circle move, I will be severely disappointed.)

Babysitting

2012-01-08T10:44:00.001-07:00

A speech meet on Friday meant my weekend was free, which meant I could babysit Jack Saturday night.

It was fairly uneventful - we had dinner, watched "Kipper," read some stories, played with his toy cars, and, as you can see, played with my iPhone camera while Jack gnawed on a big soft ginger cookie.

The biggest event of the night was when Jack tumbled down the stairs. Thanks to that wonderful toddler rubberiness, he was fine, just scared. He was a sight - lying spread-eagle at the foot of the stairs, his cookie abandoned halfway down, with a stunned expression for those tense seconds of quiet that preceded the big wails. I picked him up, restored the cookie, and we read "Pigs in Hiding" until he calmed down.

All in all, an easy night. I even had time to read more of "The Three Musketeers" before Rachel and Ben got home.

Great

2012-01-05T22:29:00.001-07:00

Here's a text I just got from a student while at a hotel in the far eastern plains of Colorado 1.5 hours after taping them into their rooms for the night.

Was it only yesterday I was celebrating being a teacher?

Good Signs

2012-01-04T21:01:00.001-07:00

Today, the first day of new classes, went well! The kids are excited, I'm excited, and although my classes are not as obviously good groups of kids as last semesters, I think they will turn out well.

I have a lot of new students in Intro to Drama (last term's class were almost entirely comprised of former speech kids from the year before) who are very talkative and very energetic. I had to do a lot of redirection and reminders and reprimands, but it's the good kind of energy that, if I can harness and channel it in the right direction, will make for some fun plays (which, not coincidentally, is identical to the kind of energy that drives other teachers up the wall).

As much as I've been looking forward to teaching it again, I was concerned about Humanities. At first, I was worried because of how many of my drama kids signed up for the class. I didn't want them to be disappointed or upset because it's not like drama. I warned them. I told them it was more academic-like, more "like a real class." Even forewarned, they groaned a bit when they walked into my room and discovered desks, then groaned again when I said the desks were here to stay.

They got into it, though. I went over the scope of the course, and they were excited about what we were going to study. We went through a slideshow of a variety of art pieces and debated over which ones were actually "Art," then they discussed possible ways to define art. My confidence grew!

And then the kids I didn't know, the group of boys sitting the furthest away from me, started to lose interest, to chat. It's the last class of the day, the first day back, etc. I get it - it's a hard time for them to stay focused for 90 minutes straight. I redirected them away from their whispered conversation about snowboarding, but I was worried about how they would handle in the more artsy parts of the class, the stuff that is definitely not cool to your average teenage boy, the stigmas that makes most of the jocks afraid to sign up for drama class.* I braced myself for a lot times to come of having to justify the awesomeness of art.

Then, as part of that first-day project/discussion, I showed them a clip of Diana Damrau singing the Queen of the Night aria.

"Damn!" one of the boys in the back exclaimed under his breath when she hit those F6s. All three of them were enraptured, staring slack-jawed at her.

That's when I knew this was going to be great class.

* The best comment of my year so far came from a senior basketball-playing boy who took Speech last term when his female friend twisted his arm. He confided in me towards the end of the class that it was really fun, that he learned a lot, that it was one of the best classes he's taken. He then told me in a concerned-citizen kind-of-way that "your classes have a reputation around the jocks at this school of being..." he paused, searching for the right polite word. "...weird."

I nodded. "I'm okay with that," I confided back to him.

Ten

2012-01-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

As of this week, I have been teaching for ten years.

I did some reckoning as I drove home today to try to wrap my head around the concept of a decade. (This comic's observation blew my mind a little earlier this week, so obviously I needed to give myself some concrete numbers to process ten years of teaching.) For example:

Since January, 2002 I have...

- Taught nine different subjects (13 if you count each different grade level of English as a different subject).
- Taught kids from grades 6-12, ages 11-19.
- Taught in three different schools.
- Taught a class as small as nine students and a class as large as 52 students.
- Produced/directed seven school musicals (eight if you count the one I'm in the middle of now).
- I tried to count how many plays I've produced/directed, but it's just too many to count. Guessing, I'd put it at... 40 productions? Maybe more?
- I also tried to estimate how many students I've taught/directed. Again, it has to be a guess, but I am well over 1000 students, and probably closer to 1500.
- Taken students on dozens of field trips, including a memorable one to Cedar City and, in five months, a long one to New York City.
- Seen over 30 plays on field trips with students.
- Introduced over 100 students (and several parents) to professional live theater by taking them to shows.
- Watched "The Reduced Shakespeare Company's Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged" and "Into the Woods" on DVD over 20 times each.
- Said, "And that's us!" after Check-In in every class period, every day, for over 180 days per year, since 2006 (except for a few months at STMS when my principal forbade me to do check-in).
- Coached speech kids to win dozens of Best of Event trophies at over 30 speech meets.
- Ridden thousands of miles on school buses.
- Okay, seriously- 1500 kids! I can't even wrap my brain around teaching for a decade, let alone the fact that I have talked to, worked with, worried about, celebrated with, sung with, laughed with, graded papers written by, made a deliberate fool out of myself, and gotten to know that many people.

I have also met some of my favorite people in the world, pushed myself in ways they never warned me about in teacher college, worked through a lot of my own fears and hang-ups from school (mostly middle school), and, despite some really hard days and countless nights where I fall asleep while eating dinner, I am still glad to be a teacher. It's who I am, it's who I am meant to be, and it's one of the best parts of me.

Oh, also? I've been teaching for ten years and I have never, not even once during that time, eaten lunch from a school cafeteria.

Callings

2012-01-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to wonder if my ward can't figure out what to do with me. For the fifth time since I switched into this ward (15 months ago), a member of the bishopric called me "with a few questions." He said the Young Women's Presidency was reorganizing, and they were wondering what my availability was like for being a Laurel Adviser (Laurels being the 16-17-year-old girls in the ward). Specifically, he was asking whether I would be able to commit to activities every Tuesday night?

Okay, here's the thing. In our church, there's a strong assertion of inspiration behind every calling. If the leadership is inspired to call you to a position, the expectation is that you will accept the calling, no matter how impractical or unreasonable it seems to you at the time, because it is God's will for you and it will therefore work out. Whatever the apparent issue or obstacle, if you accept the calling with faith and try hard enough, it will work out.

And I actually do believe that. That principle has certainly proved itself in the past when I've been called to such jobs as Ward Chorister ("You know I'm tone-deaf, right?" were my exact words to the bishopric) and Relief Society President (both times at incredibly busy times in my life).

I have been taught and I feel like I should cheerfully and faithfully accept whatever they ask me to do. But they weren't quite calling me to the position. The bishopric member asked me about my schedule so hesitantly that I got the feeling that they had already discussed the impracticality of this calling for me. He certainly wasn't surprised when I said that I didn't think it would work, that with my commute and my after-school commitments, I just couldn't make it to the church every Tuesday by 7:00 let alone plan the activities for those girls. He said he understood, we hung up, and the guilty thoughts set in.

Could I have done it? Probably. Could I have found a way to make my schedule work? Most likely. Tuesdays are decent nights for me - my school plays are usually on Thursdays or Fridays, speech meets are on Fridays and Saturdays, and most rehearsals wrap up by 4:30. Plus, I won't be going out of the state again for a few months, and I really do love working with teenagers. Being an adviser to the Laurels would be a lot of fun, and it would make me be more social. However, even though I haven't been in YW for 15 years and I've forgotten a lot about how the whole system works, I'm pretty sure that the preparation that would go into this calling would constitute a lot more than one night a week.

I don't think the calling was offered on pure inspiration, that God wants me to be Laurel adviser and not a RS teacher, that it is my destiny. I think that I would have been a good fit there, but it's not the only thing I can do. I think that saying "No" is an important lesson I'm learning, and that I did a good job remembering how crazy things are going to get very shortly despite taking this phone call on the tail end of a blissful two weeks of sleep and reading and family. I think I chose well in steering their decision away from offering me the calling, and I think that I will be better off this semester if I'm not adding those responsibilities to my already wildly-off-balanced life.

And yet, I'm still thinking about it.

Just in Time!

2012-01-03T19:23:00.001-07:00

I was pleased to see this link on Boing Boing today:

You can play the games here.

I came back to school today to an inbox stuffed with emails I had sent myself over the break of things for Humanities. I really need to find a good online bookmarking system for all of these things (the school computers get wiped clean every time you reboot, so I can't store them the normal way). From a good summary of how we wound up with the modern calendar, to a clay animated version of Plato's cave, to photographic art remakes, to historical snippets that give perspectives on things like cheeseburgers, I have a plethora of new items for my curriculum this term.

They eased us into the return from break today with a Teacher Work Day. I love those student-free days for their outstanding productiveness. If I had my way, we would have a work day every other week. Although we get the luxury of coming in an hour later than usual, it's hardly a day of slacking off. I worked through breakfast and almost skipped lunch as well, so caught up in projects was I.

I'll be ready. I have planning first period this term, which gives me some extra time before students-proper, followed by Advanced Drama, Intro to Drama, and then Humanities. I like the look of my classes so far, and I've also already set up my mental goal-markers: Just a week and a half of school and we have a Monday off for Martin Luther King Day. Then, two weeks later, a Teacher In-Service Day. Two weeks after that, President's Day. A month after that and the musical's wrapped up and we're on spring break. And then (if I blithely ignore that interminable stretch of weeks through April and May) it's practically summer!

That's totally doable.

Speaking of Crafts...

2011-12-28T17:43:00.000-07:00

...Andy, Jenn, Rachel, and I learned a new one yesterday afternoon. There's a paint-your-own-pottery studio across the parking lot from Mom and Dad's office. Mom pointed out that they also teach glass fusing and suggested we all give it a whirl.

They have a shelf full of different-shaped glass pieces sorted into a rainbow of squares.

You pick out a base, clip and lay out the various pieces to make a design, glue them in place, then wait two weeks for them to melt the whole thing together.

Here's Jenn in action, gluing the finishing touches on her owl-plate:

Here's Rachel's finished piece:

Andy's Van Gogh-inspired tree:

And mine:

I wound up making two small pendants instead of one big piece (I included a toothpick in the picture for scale), creating a base for each out of scraps instead of using a prepared setting. I'm not sure if that's allowed, and, counter to the instructions we received, I didn't make any borders either. We'll see if they turn out. You can see the layers of glass that make up the bottom one in this picture:

I enjoyed the process, and I'm always glad to know how to do a new craft. Plus, as Jenn, Andy, and I found out, glass noodles sound pretty when they're dropped on the floor all at once!

Christmas!

2011-12-28T17:25:00.001-07:00

Christmas was marvelous this year, as always. We were all well and properly spoiled, and enjoyed a few days of the whole family being together again. My siblings all left for their homes this morning, while I get to hang out for a few more days. Mom, Dad, and I put the house back in order and they headed out to treat a few patients while I did laundry, made an appointment to fix my car, played the new Zelda game (a gift from Ben), and enjoyed the remarkable stillness of a house void of three dogs and a toddler.

I finished all the sewing I was alluding just in time on Christmas Eve. While I made a few other gifts this year, the biggie was this:

I made Jack a doll-version of his family. (If you're curious about who's who, you can try to match them up to this picture of my family and/or this picture of Jack's grandparents Mason.) I used this pattern from Wee Wonderfuls to make the bodies, which was the more tedious part. I enjoyed the creativity required to figure out how to render each person - the variety of wigs and clothes. Still, like most projects, this took much longer than I had expected. I need to remember that when I'm figuring out next year's Christmas projects.

To my relief, everyone seemed to like their respective dolls, although Jack seems mostly scared of them. It occurred to me about halfway through the project that he might be too young for this sort of thing, but that certainly wasn't going to deter me.

A happy Christmas all around!

80s Toys

2011-12-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

Neatorama had a entry of 80s toys that brought back many a memory. I recommend this blog post for the quick version and this blog post to get the songs stuck in your head ("My Buddy! My Buddy! Wherever I go, he's gonna go..."). (Also - Popples! I totally forgot about those.)

P.S. Am having a grand time in Grand Junction. I've been sewing a ton, I've read three books, and I'm sleeping a full eight hours or more each night. It's bliss, and I can't wait for Rachel, Andy, and company to join us!

Oh, Yeah

2011-12-17T23:26:00.000-07:00

The faculty party last night was fun. I do like the people I work with, and I didn't feel too bad when I started yawning around 9:00 because everyone else was yawning too. Teachers! We're such party animals!

Actually, we are. I had forgotten that the competition for the cleverest white elephant gift was more among Utah friends/colleagues. For the party last night I made a version of a gift my parents gave me a few years ago - an "automatic paper-grading box." It's a little box with letter stamps in it (A, B, C, D, & F), along with an inkpad. You shake up the box, select a letter at random, stamp the assignment, and move on. For fun, I also threw in a harmonica ("To learn to play in all your new free time!").

My gift was one of the last opened (it was also the smallest, and the big packages always go first). To my dismay, the husband of the counseling secretary was the one who picked it rather than one of the many teachers there. He opened it up and took it apart looking mystified, while his wife exclaimed "What the **** is that?" (she was a bit tipsy by this point).

It did get traded later in the game - Jesse wanted the harmonica. Some of the teachers there said that it was "clever," so I guess I met my goal. Wrong crowd, though. The gifts that were the most popular were the bottles of wine, the Belgian beer, the miniature version of Manneken Pis that pees liquor, the illustrated book of sexual positions, and the set of vibrators with various lotions. Yeah, "clever" was not what I should have been going for. (If you're wondering, I wound up with a book of Christmas-themed bumper stickers, which I gave to another teacher who admired it.)

After the party I had the pleasure of turning off my phone and all my alarms and sleeping in. I mostly spent the day running Christmas errands. The stores were crazy with lines winding all around the aisles. When I got home I did several loads of laundry, cleaned out my fridge, wrapped presents, and started one of my big craft projects for the year while watching old episodes of Community and Doctor Who. I'm thrilled that I have a whole week off before Christmas. Rather than staying up for unreasonable hours sewing, I stopped at a good point and packed the project up to take to and work on in Grand Junction. Luxury!

I'm off to finish packing now so I can depart soon after church tomorrow. It looks like the weather is completely cooperative - it's supposed to be in the 40s in Vail tomorrow! Yay for global warming!

Done!

2011-12-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

I'm done, done, done!

(Insert dance of joy.)

We spread finals over two days, and the school board finally figured out that it's a waste of everyone's time to make students come to classes they've already completed; so, today was a half-day. Yay!

I administered two finals this morning, neither of which took the entire 90-minute class period. When everyone finished in first period (Adv. Drama), we played Dominion. I have now created many Dominion fans. In third period (Drama 1), they played Killer Bunnies (which I had taught them earlier and which will also be appearing on many Christmas wish lists) while I graded tests. By the time school was dismissed at 11, I had all of my grades in and officially posted, comments and all. Yay!

We had a quick faculty meeting, then I carpooled home. I got to eat lunch at a normal person's pace (i.e. not in two minutes or less), and I got to linger over the book I was reading. Yay!

Tonight is our staff Christmas party. I'm going more out of a sense of obligation (not to my colleagues - to my social life. I don't want to go, but I know that I should want to go, so I'm going to go), and I need to figure out a white elephant gift for it. We all know there's an underlying competition to bring the cleverest white elephant gift, and I just don't have any ideas. After I post this, I'll go rummage in my closets to see if I have any odds or ends from travels to wrap up.

Speaking of checking off obligations, I seized the opportunity of a rare free evening and attended ward temple night last night. Despite the struggle I had to stay awake during it, I was glad I went. Several women in Relief Society Sunday had raised their hands when they asked for a headcount of attendees. Knowing that and knowing how sleepy I was, I almost didn't go. I had promised myself I would go again before the end of the year, though, and once there I was surprised to find that the only other people from my ward that showed up were the Bishop, his wife, and two other people. Yay for small sessions that take less time!

The weather's looking beautiful this weekend, so I'm planning on doing a bit more shopping tomorrow (after sleeping in - yay!), then driving out to GJ after church on Sunday.

I'm so excited that I get a two-week break from teaching and teenagers. As much as I love my job and my students, I really need a break from all the drama (theater or otherwise).

It's Christmas time! Yay!

Where Have I Been?

2011-12-13T20:53:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Rachel posted an entry about these visual travel logs. Never one to turn down a challenge (especially when it involves travel!), I finally got around to making my own maps:

World-wide:

Visited: 22 countries (9.77%)
(Boy, visiting Canada and Russia sure helps to make this look impressive!)

and America:

Visited: 41 states (82%)
(I feel a need to fill in those white spaces. They're taunting me, I tell you!)

Sigh. There's so much left to see!

It probably doesn't help my wanderlust that as I'm typing this I'm also chatting with Phra Sanjoy, one of my monk friends from Thailand. He's trying to talk me into visiting his hometown in Bangladesh. See?

Now, how do I resist an invitation like that?

P.S. I pass on the challenge to Jason. Tag! You're it!

Christmas Crafting

2011-12-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

For gifts to my colleagues this year I've adapted this idea from Oh Happy Day.

Here are the ingredients...

Which are all now tucked neatly away into these bags from Ikea:

As my refrigerator says...

Yay! Christmas!

The Cute Little Suck-ups...

2011-12-11T21:09:00.003-07:00

RANDY: Ms. W., are we actually going to learn anything in class next week?

ME: You know what? Just for asking that, Randy, I'm going to make you write an essay every day next week explaining what you learn just by being in my presence.

Three Other STUDENTS: (simultaneously) You mean "How to be Awesome"?

A Weekend Off

2011-12-11T21:06:00.001-07:00

My parents came to town this weekend for some pre-Christmas shopping/Jack-time. We ate out; shopped at Edward's Meats, the Mills, and the 16th Street Mall; and even squeezed in a quick trip to the LoDo Tattered Cover. I went hunting for Amelie Nothomb books, since I read Fear and Trembling this week and am now completely enamored with her writing. Alas, there's only two of her books available on the Kindle in English (Fear and Trembling being one of those), and even more alas, Tattered Cover did not carry any of her books whatsoever. I actually had to go on Amazon today and purchase three books that I now have to wait, like, an entire week to get instead of mere seconds. And then I'll have to carry them around and physically turn the pages! Buying paper books on Amazon.com! What is this world coming to?

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my parents, as always, even though the preceding weeks so completely wiped me out that I fell asleep on Rachel's couch at 9:00 last night. When the parents woke up me up as they were leaving, they insisted (wisely and kindly) on driving me home when I could neither stop yawning nor keep my eyes open for more than 30 seconds.

Remarkably, I did wake up in time for church today. One of my friends there asked about the Paris trip saying, "I thought about you a lot that week, and, I will admit, it was with jealously."

As little sense as it may make, I'm jealous of me too. When I think back over the trip, I get jealous of two-weeks-ago me eating good food and seeing good art. Spoiled girl!

I've almost finished my Christmas shopping, although I've barely started my Christmas crafting. I'm eager to wrap up this semester so I can get cracking on my projects list. The only after-school activity I have this week is the first musical rehearsal tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can do some of the preliminary crafting soon. 'Tis the season for unrealistic DIY project goals that I have no idea how to actually bring to fruition! Ho, ho, ho!

Casted!

2011-12-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

After a week of auditions, we've got a cast for the spring musical! (Did I tell you yet that it's Beauty and the Beast? I don't recall if I mentioned that.)

I think Rachel, Jesse, and I have found our groove when it comes to the audition/casting process - things went smoothly and we were relatively quick in the decision-making. Of course, it helped that Jesse and I were late getting to call-backs thanks to a lengthy faculty meeting and Jesse had an orchestra concert tonight he had to dash off to as soon as we had the major and minor leads settled. Between those two events we were highly motivated to move the call-backs along at a brisk pace.

I'll post the cast list tomorrow and deal with the usual wave of emotions. I'm also taking my Advanced Drama class to see "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" at the DCTC tomorrow, which means

1) I don't have to teach-teach (if you know what I mean) except for an hour at the start of the day!
2) I do have to make sub plans for my other two classes!
3) I get to see a play with my students!
4) I have to make double trips up and down the mountain!
5) We have to run up to grab lunch on the 16th Street Mall in less than 20 minutes after the show to get back to school in time for the kids to catch their buses!
6) This time none of my kids are in wheelchairs or on crutches, so there's a chance we can do that in the allotted time!

I'm also very excited because my parents are coming to town for the weekend for some Jack-time/Christmas shopping. I haven't seen them since Labor Day, and I very much need a recharging weekend. One that's spent in good company far, far away from speech meets sounds just right. Plus, when it's over I only have 4.5 more days of school left before the break!

As you might be able to tell, my mood's improved since earlier this week. I attribute this to
a) only having 4.5 days of school left,
b) finishing several major projects at work, and
c) decorating my home.

I took Jason's advice, you see, and set up a little Christmas pyramid to add a little holiday mood to my place:

And then I figured while I was at it, I could hang up a wreath. I didn't figure out a way to hang up a wreath without pounding a nail in my front door (probably verboten), so I hung up my mom's geese instead:

But then I wanted my wooden back-lit German scene-thing (the proper name for it escapes me), so I bundled up and trekked across the parking lot to my garage to get another box of Christmas decorations.

I found it

but I also found this

which led to my fireplace mantle looking like this:

The rest of that box was only filled with tree ornaments, which made me fret over where my creches were. So I bundled up and braved my ice-slick of a parking lot again to dig through my garage and find the other two boxes of Christmas decorations. There were my little creches:

But also my bigger pyramid (plus some more little German creches):

At that point in my "If you give a mouse a cookie" experience, I figured that as long as I had all of those tree decorations out...

So I donned my coat a third time and went to the garage to find the little tree Grandma Cook gave me back in college.

And thus my home was decorated. Even if I am the only one to see it and it's only for a few days, it really does make me happier. I love white Christmas lights and candlelight. I also love that when I light candles, I get to put them out with the bejeweled candle-snuffer Jason gave me a few years ago:

If only I had a long, flowing white nightgown in which I could drift about snuffing candles!

Up and Down and Up and Down

2011-12-04T16:35:00.001-07:00

I'm sipping a cup of hot chocolate that's nice and foamy thanks to a frother (that's for you, Rachel) up in Mountain Town right now. I had hoped to have a quiet Sunday at home - a chance to catch up on laundry and bills and life-business, but with 6-12 inches of snow forecasted for tonight and tomorrow, I instead did a super-fast load of laundry after church and packed up my things yet again.

I did not bring the cat. It was a Sophie's choice - the guilt over leaving her behind yet again vs. the guilt of forcing her on a car ride and forcing her spend a night with Jack and Jem. She ran for the closet when she saw me start packing, which I took to be sign that she favored Guilt Option #1.

Two-thirds of the cars I passed on the drive up here were heading down the mountain with pine-trees strapped to their roofs with bright red ropes. I've been deliberating whether to decorate for Christmas this year. I haven't for a couple of years now, since a) I'm rarely home in December and b) I'm the only one there to enjoy it. Seeing Rachel's and Jason's decked-out homes makes me want to get a little tree of my own. I just don't know when - the next time I'll have a free evening is Tuesday next week, and that's only a few days before I head home for Christmas. It's hardly a motivating amount of time.

It's been a hard week. I woke up with a headache this morning (never a good sign) and I spent quite some time trying to clean off the mascara under my eyes before I realized that nope, it's not makeup, it's just exhaustion (also never a good sign). The speech meet yesterday was plagued by a snowstorm in the morning, a vomiting sophomore, a small group of adults-in-charge who just wouldn't make decisions, and a severe lack of judges that made the meet an interminable 14-hour affair.

The students have been grumpier than usual all week, too. Not across the board and not severely so, but just enough to make sure someone was always complaining about something that was bothering them. They're ready for a break, as are all of the teachers.

I'm sure some of that grumpiness is my own projection. The jet lag made keeping spirits up harder than usual this week, plus I was fighting off some strong post-trip depression. In the past year or so I've noticed how much harder it is for me to come home from a trip. Not because of the travel itself or the exhausting go-go-go-ness of my preferred kind of vacation. It's because after getting to spend so much time with people I love - Emily and company, my parents, Jason - when I come home to my life alone I feel so much more lonely. I interact with people all day at school and at church and at outings, but even though I only had a couple of hours this week where I was awake and not working, the quiet and solitude of those hours were so much sharper after a week spent with good companionship.

I know the depression will pass. It did after previous trips, and I get to spend a good chunk of time with my family in just a few weeks. In the meantime, though, I'm trying to figure out a solution for the future. I'm certainly not going to eliminate trips like those from my life, but how do I get to spend time with my favorite people without feeling the post-trip loneliness so keenly?

Fancy Tiger's Holiday Handmade Craft Fair

2011-12-04T09:33:00.004-07:00

Rachel has been a fan of this fair since its inception, but it has always fallen on the same weekend as drama plays/speech meets so I have not been able to attend.

This year, though, I didn't schedule a Friday night performance, which meant I could go see this fair with Rachel. (Kermit arm waves) Yay!

I won't be going into too many details about the crafts themselves since there was a lot of Christmas shopping going on. I bought some things for others and, lacking Rachel's remarkable restraint, I bought some things for myself.

The facility itself was pretty, the crafts were fun (and occasionally creepy - who uses doll arms to make earrings?), and I loved getting to hang out with Rachel for a bit.

'Tis the holiday season! Yay!

I Have Magical Powers

2011-12-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

I can make it snow by scheduling a performance.

Then I can make the snow stop by canceling said performance.

I vow to use this power for good, not for evil.

Tonight was originally going to be the second Advanced Drama play of the term. Because we had to push back their first play (Much Ado), we only had four weeks between show dates. And that included Thanksgiving.

Despite their pleadings, I stood firm with the declaration that doing a play in three weeks just isn't possible (at least not while I'm also doing the Drama 1 play, auditions for the musical, and Speech). We compromised, and decided to do a Film Festival instead.

The students divided into small groups and each group has made four short films in the last few weeks: a Shakespeare play in five minutes or less, a Sweded film, a commercial, and a music video. They've turned out pretty well, and I've been pleased with the learning I've seen happen because of it, even though the kids are still complaining about not getting to do another play.

I tried to make things better by offering some dazzle for the festival - a red carpet, they get to come in black tie (i.e. last year's prom dresses), etc. They asked if we could do awards. Before I could even acquiesce they decided I should give out Waters - "you know, like the Oscars, but Waters since you're Waterhouse," they said.

I'm a sucker for ideas like that, so my TA and I braved the blizzard this morning to make these:

They're actually still full of water, too. We also pulled out all of my star lights, white Christmas lights, Chinese lanterns, and a bunch of old film strips from the library to decorate the theater lobby.

And then we canceled the festival due to the snow that was coming down harder than ever.

And then I sent out all the necessary emails and letters and flyers to notify everyone.

And then the snow stopped and the sun came out.

Oh, well. We rescheduled the festival for the only night the auditorium was available ('tis the season of concerts after all). I'll have to stick around a bit after the musical audition workshops next Monday, but we'll start it by 6:00 if not earlier, so I should still be able to enjoy some time with Rachel, Ben, and Jack, who are all coming up to Mountain Town for the auditions as well.

It's a shame we didn't get a full snow day out of it. I could have really used a snow day.

Paris Day 6 - Strasbourg

2011-11-30T20:16:00.002-07:00

Despite the constant late nights, we hauled ourselves out of bed before sunrise on Saturday, bundled up, and headed to the Paris Est train station. There was a little hassle over our tickets, but once we figured out where the SNCF office we sorted it out quickly (making me extremely grateful for the eightieth time on this trip that Jason's so proficient with the language). We even had time for a cup of hot chocolate and a pain au chocolate each before boarding the TGV to take us to Strasbourg.

I wanted to stay awake and enjoy the sights of the ride. I really did. Back when I started teaching, I figured out quickly that sometimes the children pushed so many buttons all at once that I had two choices - either go really loud and yell or go really quiet and wait. So I used to go to my happy place: I'd shut my eyes and retreat far enough away mentally that I could wait for them to regulate themselves. They were always pretty quick to quiet down when I did that (I don't think they were used to seeing their teachers stand ((or, on one particularly impatient occasion, lay down on the floor)) perfectly still with their eyes closed), and it solved the problem more quickly and neatly than yelling did. The point of my telling you this is to say that when I would go to my happy place, I would always go to the long car rides we took to Paris back when we lived in Landstuhl. I can easily slip back to the memory of the sound of rain on the glass, the smell of the countryside, the quiet murmur of my parents talking in the front seats, the rough texture of the upholstery and the cool smoothness of the window. I especially loved watching the green, green hills and the small white and brown villages passing by. It's one of my most sensuous memories, and I love it.

So I did want to watch the countryside pass by on this ride (albeit much more quickly than we drove back then), but the past few ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ months and the gentle rocking of the train overpowered me, and I slept the entire way there. Fortunately, Jason stayed awake for most of the journey and documented it for his train-obsessed nieces and nephew. Please to enjoy.

We arrived in Strasbourg just before 11:00, walked out of the train station,

and immediately came upon brown market stalls. Most importantly, one of said stalls had a large sign proclaiming "Crepes!"

Okay, it didn't have an exclamation mark. I, however, read it with the exclamation mark, since there had been a serious lack of crepes on our trip so far. We pounced, Jason ordered a beignet (which is not at all the same as the ones made by Memere and is therefore far inferior) while I got a crepe with Nutella and banana. Eventually. It was the first day of the market and the girl making them didn't quite have the knack yet, so it took her a few tries.

She eventually got one to work, and I thrust my phone at Jason to take a picture of me enjoying the crepe (while wearing my tourist-beret, of course!):

"What's with your eyes?" Jason asked, looking at the result on my iPhone.

"I'm rolling them in delight," I explained.

"I'm taking another picture," he said. "Just look normal this time."

"Better?" I asked.

He sighed. "It'll do."

With that and with me licking my Nutella-coated fingers, we set off through the town.

Apparently, I've been to Strasbourg before, but to nine-year-old me, cute German towns all just blended together. I thoroughly enjoyed it this time, though. It's rife with small alleyways and winding streets:

lots of buildings in that Germanic style I love:

fun details like this trompe d'oeil:

stores that were fully in the Christmas spirit already:

and, best of all, signs like this one:

There wasn't just one market though. Every plaza in town was full of those brown wooden stalls. We planned to shop, but decided to see the town first. And to eat. It had been minutes since my crepe and his beignet after all.

Alas, some of the prettiest food wasn't so practical for us tourists:

But we quickly found a brat stand

and got some lunch:

Do you see the size of that bucket of sauerkraut? We did our best, but barely made a dent in it.

The stand we got that meal from was sponsored by this deli:

which had all of these cute wooden pigs embedded in their Christmas decorations.

Thirsty, we went hunting for hot cider but only found stand after stand of hot wine. Finally, we saw a sign advertising hot orange juice with honey. So strange we had to try it!

I liked it, although it did get too sweet for me about halfway through.

We discovered a collection of stalls heralded as the Swiss village and were winding our way through them towards the Children's Land, when Jason suddenly cried out, "Raclette!"

Under normal circumstances, I would have assumed he had spotted an obscure French literary reference, but he was instead pointing at this strange sight:

"What's raclette?" I asked.

"You haven't had raclette?" he asked, more aghast than he would have been if I hadn't recognized the obscure French literary reference. "We're having raclette," he declared.

I hesitated. I was very full after trying to conquer Mt. Sauerkraut, and a plateful of cheese seemed more than I could handle without more walking first. Jason saw my hesitation and said the magic words he knew would make me give in: "It's served with cornichons...."

I looked at the stand and, yes, there was a giant tub of cornichons. There were also tall blond Swiss men serving up those cornichons. "Okay, raclette!" I said.

(there is a serious issue with the potato-to-cornichon ratio on this plate!)

We took our plates of oozing cheese over to the stand next door where a bar had been built around a fire pit and warmed our hands as we ate the raclette, which was indeed delicious.

Very, very full at that point, we walked to and along the river, making many a photographic stop.

(Look! That house is skinnier than the European car in front of it!)

There was a variety of street musicians, too, as well as steadily-growing crowds:

We turned back towards town and went to check out the cathedral. The cathedral really is stunning – you see glimpses of it as you walk through town, but when you walk into the square in front of I suddenly BAM! There is it, and it’s overpowering, forcing you to look heavenward with it’s gothic pointiness.

Aside from the usual innards of a cathedral,

Children entranced by the forbidden candles

Pretty windows

Exotic Nativities

Pretty ceilings

Creepy babies

We also found a Primary Program!

And a very cool clock:

Our blood sugar dipping dangerously close to normal levels, we went back outside to fight the crowds and find food. We found flam:

(also made by tall blond Swiss men)

Which we ate while watching ice skaters circling a small rink built nearby. Then we found a stand full of enticing-looking boules de neige:

and the long-sought cider!

(the boules were filled with marshmallow atop a waffle, by the way:)

By then the sun was setting, the lights were gleaming, and the throngs were pressing. We refreshed our wallets at the ATM and went Christmas shopping at some of the few stalls of more traditional German crafts before a quick dinner of donar kabobs and frites.

We happened upon the tree the moment it was being lit. We're good like that.

We escaped the crowds to wind our way back to the train station where we had to wait a while on the platform for our delayed train back to Paris. I was glad when it finally arrived, by dismayed to find that our seats were facing backwards. Despite my motion sickness watch, riding on a swaying train backwards is just not a good thing for me. Jason tried to distract me for a time by translating the essay on feminism from his newly-purchased script of L'ecole des femmes, but even the promise of learning how to turn myself from an object to a subject was not enough to keep the nausea and dizziness at bay. I turned to the only defense I had left – sleep – and dozed fitfully the rest of the way home. A few moments to recover on the platform, a metro ride filled with drunk young adults (shouting "How DARE you? I'm not drunk! I'm not f****** drunk!" is a dead giveaway that yes, in fact, you are drunk), and a short walk later we were back in our hotel. We cranked up the opera music and sadly packed our suitcases to depart Paris in the morning.

And, as you saw, we made it home with little adventure and slight discomforts. I will add that the Airbus is pretty awesome. Not only does it have a nifty entertainment center in front of each seat:

but it’s actually quite spacious for an airplane. You can stand up comfortably, and the seats have a little more room than usual. I'd recommend it, if you have the chance.

And there you have it – our trip to Paris. May it be one of many.

Paris Day 5 Part 2 - Cendrillon

2011-11-29T20:27:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to put in a few more details about the ballet we saw Friday night.

I was uncertain about the production of Cendrillon during the first act. The theater and the stage were beautiful and the dancers were good, but the plot was so hard to follow! Nureyev's restaging placed the classic Cinderella fairy tale in the early days of Hollywood. I could pick out well enough that the stepsisters were aspiring actresses with the obligatory stage mother, but I wasn't sure where they were (In a house? A studio? A movie theater?) or the roles of all of the side-players in the first act. I really liked the movie producer/fairy god~~mother~~father, and the stepmother was terrific. Cinderella was, of course, beautiful and put upon, but I was glad to see her whisked away to Hollywood where the plot would soon be easier to follow.

Next came a fashion show of the different seasons (still confusing), followed by a creepy Metropolis-like Dance of the Hours. Act 1 ended with a wonderful trick where a large fabric pumpkin was brought on stage. When it reached center, it "popped," the fabric collapsed to the floor, and then immediately and quickly inflated to become a 1920s-style car, complete with a chauffeur who had been sitting in the pumpkin.

Act 2 began with a series of films being shot - a comedic crime piece, a Louis XIV waltz, a remake of King Kong. They were all choreographed with slapstick bits and really had nothing to do with the plot other than setting up the Hollywood mood. We met the prince, a movie star, shooting the ball scene of what else? Cinderella.

Here I think they were showing off their wealth. The costumes and sets were terrific, but what really wowed me was the presence of two guys for every girl in the chorus. Not only did it make for interesting choreography for the waltzing, but director-me who is casting Beauty and the Beast next week and who might not have enough guys to fill the lead roles let alone a chorus was positively green-eyed.

In the midst of shooting this scene, Cinderella shows up in a delightful entrance, silhouetted behind the green-glass and clockwork-looking backdrop accompanied by a mob of paparazzi with cameras flashing. She and the prince immediately begin dancing for the film, then she sits to the side to watch the shooting continue. Their first pas de deux of the show was my favorite. It began quietly with the prince slowly approaching Cinderella on her stool downstage left. He takes her hand, spins her around on the stool, and then they dance and it's just all soft and lovely like a pas de deux should be. The dance ended with the prince sitting on the same stool, Cinderella posed across his lap, the pair of them slowly circling around and around.

I was only disappointed by the lack of impressive lifts (I love those nearly as much as I love male dancers leaping), but all of the lead dancers in this show were wonderful at making incredibly difficult move look as quick and easy as shaking water off your hand. They did complete the show with a terrific lift at the very end - the Prince lifting Cinderella completely above his head while she holds a long pink scarf aloft in the breeze of a wind-machine aimed by the producer. I just wish he had scooped up her skirt so we could see his face too!

By the end of the show, the production had completely won me over. It was beautifully and skillfully danced; the comedic leads shone, the stepsisters and the movie director/assistant in particular, although the stepmother had a wonderful moment when she decided to try on the shoe herself; and the music was so grand and waltzy and dark and shimmery at all the right times. I'm so glad we got those suddenly-released tickets!

I was a good audience member, of course, so I had to do some hunting online for images to share with you. Here are a few from the official website (Please do click to enlarge - they're so pretty!):

P.S. I'll tell you about Strasbourg tomorrow. They're predicting 8-17 inches of snow tomorrow night/Thursday, so I need to pack for a few nights up in Mountain Town. At least I got three nights in my own bed before living out of a suitcase again!

Ma Soeur

2011-11-28T20:33:00.001-07:00

I came home last night to find that Rachel had left a complete Thanksgiving dinner in my fridge!

I was too tired to eat last night after the flights, so I got to enjoy it today instead. We ate well in Paris, but I was a little sad to miss out on the traditional flavors of this holiday. It was delicious, and I'm very lucky to have such an awesome sister.

Paris Day 5 (Friday)

2011-11-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

(I'm home! And I taught a full day of school! And ran speech practice! And learning even occurred at both! On the part of the students! And now I get to catch you up on the last two days in Paris!)

Our museum passes expired Thursday, so we felt less hard-pressed to get out of beds and get cracking Friday morning (and no, that's not a typo. I typed "get out of bed" originally, but given our tight space and the maid's non-too-subtle suggestions via blankets and bed positioning of how she thought we should be sleeping I wanted to clarify that we were indeed in two separate beds). We hit snooze several times on the alarm, and took our leisurely time getting ready. It was nice, actually. Almost like we were on vacation.

When we finally did get out the door, the first order of business was breakfast. We decided to try a new bakery ("new" as in not Paul's) we had passed and that I had seen recommended on my Pastry App (more about that in a moment). When I saw their wall of bread that was so reminiscent of the framed cereal display at my parents' house, I knew I'd like them.

We picked out our treats (including their highly-recommended cookie) and ate them at a counter-top while I looked up the location of a FNAC bookstore. There was one only a few blocks away, so off we went!

It had been days since I had been to a bookstore, so you can imagine my delight. Jason dove into the fiction section to resupply his home library while I went to the kids/young adult section to peruse.

It was fun to see the offerings of a big-chain French bookstore. In addition to all sorts of great books with excellent covers they had a whole display of Tintin-related merchandise for the movie, of course, several versions of Trivial Pursuit (I would have gotten the French Food version for my family had I not thought the language would be a bit of an issue), and recipe kits that included miniature pots, presses, and croissant-cutters.

We walked to the Luxemburg Gardens next which, despite being only a block away from our hotel, we had not yet visited. There were bright, beautiful, giant polka-dots of chrysanthemums all along the walls, a group of middle-school-aged kids chasing each other as they waited for something, joggers (as promised in the Stuff Parisians Like book), and a few other lunch-break wanderers like us. Even in the winter the park was lovely, and I was thrilled when it started to rain almost-but-not-quite snowflakes that remained minute drops of water when they landed and sparkled on our jackets and hair.

As the almost-snow continued, we headed out of the park to find lunch at a nearby cafe. We went off-book for the meal and found again that we were disappointed. We kept our choices light in anticipation of our afternoon plans - just a salad each and a cheese plate to share since there had been a disturbing lack of cheese so far in our trip. Alas, it was the same quality that you could find at any grocery store in the States. So it was with renewed purposed that I set to work mapping out our afternoon plans.

Originally we were going to visit Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, but this morning Jason said, "What if instead we go to different specialty shops and find the best of various treats like pastries and chocolates and eat our way around town all afternoon?"

"I think doing that would make my parents more proud of me than when I got my master's degree or IB diploma," was my reply.

So I downloaded David Lebovitz's Pastry App (thanks again for the recommendation, Pepere!), which I used over the remains of our cheese plate to map out a route for the afternoon. We were off!

(By the way, there's no need for me to rate or review everything we tried, since it was all absolutely delicious and well worth future visits. We chose well, and we have the App to thank for it.)

First Stop: Eric Kayser

Type: Bakery

I sampled: Baguette Sandwich (salami and butter), pain au chocolate, pecan/chocolate chip cookie

Second Stop: Pierre Herme

Specialty: Chocolates

I sampled: "MOGADOR - Ganache au chocolat au lait et au fruit de la passion, biscuit macaron fruit de la passion, pâte d’amande fondante au macaron fruit de la passion, enrobés de chocolat au lait"

Third Stop: Laduree

Specialty: Macarons (and I finally understood what all the fuss was about!)

I sampled: Lemon macaron

Fourth Stop: Chapon

Specialty: Chocolate Mousse Tasting Bar (I KNOW! Right?)

I sampled: Madagascar with carmelized pecans sprinkled on top

I also couldn't resist those green balls in the background. They were too pretty! So I got one of those as well and had it after the ballet. Turns out it was a Lime Caramel dipped in dark chocolate. Here it is on my bed:

Fifth Stop: Barthelemy

Specialty: Cheese

I sampled: Well, here's the thing. We didn't get the names of what we bought. Which is more than a dommage, it's a horror because it means we can't search fruitlessly for that deliciously runny cheese and lament that it's not available in the US because there's absolutely no way a cheese that delicious would be approved by the FDA. So let's just look at the pictures of that cheese again and mourn our cheese-name ignorance.

We didn't eat the cheese right away because we needed to dash back to the hotel to dress for the ballet.

The rest of the story will have to wait, though, because it's eight o'clock and my brain thinks it's 4:00 AM, and I need to get my tired self to bed so I can teach the wee ones again tomorrow. I'll write more soon, I promise.

Back In the US, Back in Line!

2011-11-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

Here's hoping security's not bad! Our CDG-IAD flight was delayed by 2 hours, making for a tight connection. All I can do is cross my fingers and blog about it!
Eh, bien! Tant pis!
<<shoulder shrug with poofed out cheeks>>

One Last Word

2011-11-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

Bonus Points to whomever can name this dish!

(Hint: We ate it at the Swiss village at the Marche de Noel....)

Paris Days 5 & 6

2011-11-26T17:01:00.000-07:00

I have two wonderful days to tell you all about - FNAC, Luxembourg Gardens, the TGV, Strasbourg, and oh! The food!

Alas, it is 1:00 AM. Even more alas, we leave for the airport in 8 hours. We're both packed, I've almost recovered from having to ride backwards on a train for 2.5 hours, and we are both sleep-deprived. For very good causes, yes, but we have miles to go before we sleep tomorrow so whatever beauty sleep we can squeeze in now is imperative.

When I get back home and am awake, I'll tell you all about our last two days. Until then, good night and see you stateside!

SUCH a Good Ballet!

2011-11-25T16:24:00.003-07:00

And we look good too, n'est-ce pas?

While the exterior of the theater was entirely too cold and stadium-like for our tastes, the house and stage itself was grand and beautiful.

My hot date.

The view on the walk home was pretty sweet, too.

Oh, Paris

2011-11-25T16:03:00.001-07:00

Eating bread and fine cheeses in pajamas on our beds after watching a marvelous ballet.

Life is very, very good.

Spotted Yesterday

2011-11-25T02:57:00.001-07:00

This was in the restaurant we ate Thanksgiving lunch at- a dedicated bread-slicing machine!

I asked Jason if he knew what the sticks hanging next to it were for. "To beat off the crowds wanting freshly sliced baguettes" was his more-than-reasonable guess.

Day 4 - Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T16:32:00.003-07:00

For all of those who expressed doubt at our abillity/decision to celebrate Thanksgiving in Paris, I'll have you know that not only did I have green beans, mashed potatoes, and yams today; but Jason and I celebrated with three (THREE) fine meals. We also visited Sainte-Chapelle, Notre Dame, and the Louvre, did a little shopping, and saw a charming movie.

I'm sticking with the meal photos tonight. I took a ton of photos at the churches/museums that will turn up on Flickr soon.

Also? Jason wore yellow pants. And they looked awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I wish I could be with you.

No, scratch that. I wish you were here instead. :) After all, as the wise Oscar Wilde said, "When good Americans die, they go to Paris."

P.S. I don't mean I wish you were all dead, as Jason claims I implied. I just mean when given the choice between celebrating in Paris or in America, one chooses Paris. Is that better, M. La Souche?

Thanksgiving Dinner

2011-11-24T16:06:00.001-07:00

An amuse-bouche of potatoe, brussel sprout, and... beans, perhaps?

A warm gelatin seafood soup

Sashimi

Okay, this was by far the best thing I've eaten in Paris so far. It's a roasted eggplant withh Miso sause, which doesn't sound that outstanding but trust me - it was amazing. Just look at my expression while I ate it:

Pork with ginger, green beans, bean sprouts, and sweet potatoes

And then they added to it! Rice, marinated cucumbers, and miso soup

Those would be the cucumbers

Dessert: Red bean ice cream and various fruits. Light, sweet, and delicious!

Thanksgiving Lunch

2011-11-24T15:53:00.001-07:00

A four-course traditional French meal.

Terrine de compagne, bread, and a whole jar of cornichons, which immediately made this restaurant the best restaurant ever.

Grilled shrimp and tiny croutons on a bed of risotto with squid ink.

Chicken on a variety of brown things that were delicious.

Thought that was a bowl of butter when the waitress placed that next to me in the third course. Nope! It's mashed potatoes. With a lot of butter.

Carmelized pears covered with chocolate mousse and carmelized almonds.

Thanksgiving Breakfast

2011-11-24T15:48:00.003-07:00

Two selections of pastries/bread each and dark and thick hot chocolate from Paul's (the bakery Jason waxed rhapsodic about in a few months ago).

We ate sitting at a table outdoors, of course, and Jason almost let me read for a few minutes. He interrupted with very important business, though - he was selecting our lunch and dinner from le Michelin.

Un Film

2011-11-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

"The Artist"

We both loved it, as would you, my family- it's a French homage to "Singing in the Rain" starring the guy from OSS 117!

A perfect way to end a lovely Thanksgiving Day.

PS I even understood 95% of a French movie without English subtitles!

PPS. You will be far less impressed by that feat when you see it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T11:10:00.001-07:00

We are celebrating with fine art and good food today. I have a ton of pictures to upload (mostly for my Humanities class), but we are off to dinner now and then a film.

I'll leave you with a photo of my new scarf:

Music Under Hotel at 1:00 AM

2011-11-24T01:30:00.000-07:00

Le Louvre at Midnight

2011-11-24T01:28:00.001-07:00

La Comedie Francaise

2011-11-24T01:27:00.002-07:00

Musee D'Orsay

2011-11-24T01:27:00.001-07:00

Lunch, Snack, Dinner

2011-11-24T01:26:00.001-07:00

Misc. Sights

2011-11-24T01:21:00.000-07:00

The Kiss and Others

2011-11-24T01:17:00.001-07:00

Other Pieces

2011-11-24T01:15:00.000-07:00

The Gates of Hell

2011-11-24T01:14:00.001-07:00

The Thinker

2011-11-24T01:12:00.001-07:00

Musee Rodin

2011-11-24T01:06:00.000-07:00

Day 3 - Musee Rodin, Musee D'Orsay, et a Play

2011-11-23T11:03:00.003-07:00

No photos at the moment - Blogger's bouncing back all of the emails I'm trying to send and we're leaving for the theater in about half an hour, so I don't want to spend too long trying to figure it all out.

We skipped breakfast mostly because we walked to the Musee Rodin and didn't see any bakeries along the way. Quoi, quoi?! as the British king practicing his French might say. I realized later in the day that skipping breakfast meant we skipped a chance to have pastries. There are only a limited number of those opportunities left!

We toured the Rodin Museum first, which I loved. I hadn't been a big Rodin fan until I saw so many of pieces together in such a good context. The gardens were lovely, but I especially enjoyed the house devoid of all furniture save room after room of sculptures and a few small chairs for sketchers. I found many new favorites of his (which I'll show you pictures of if I get Blogger to cooperate!).

We found a mediocre lunch at a restaurant near Les Invalides, then walked to the Musee D'Orsay, one of my favorite museums ever. They have been renovating and reorganizing the entire museum over the past two years, and I generally like the new look/layout. We especially enjoyed a new temporary exhibit entitled "The Beauty, Morals, and Voluptuousness of Oscar Wilde's England". Very well-planned with beautiful pieces, especially an Adoration tapestry.

We covered two floors, took a doughnut/Orangina break (we wanted hot chocolate and croissants, but to no avail), then tackled the fifth floor before heading towards the hotel. We stopped for dinner at Maoz, a quick vegetarian chain I had tried in Madrid, then came back here to get ready for the show tonight.

So now I shall leave you for the pleasures of Moliere. We'll see how good my French is when they're speaking an archaic text in rhyming verse! Wish me luck!

Day 2 - Versailles and Such

2011-11-22T15:55:00.001-07:00

(Take two of this entry. Within one sentence of finishing, my browser crashed. Damn you, Safari!)

We began our day sleeping a bit later than we wanted, due to a misunderstanding about the alarm. Nonetheless, we departed the hotel a little after 10 to find beautiful wather (I carried my coat almost the whole day) and pains au chocolate (the first of many, I hope).

We caught the RER to Versailles and were soon touring about the opulence. It was just as grand and lovely as I remembered and not nearly as crowded! I tell you what, between the cool-but-not-too-cold weather and the lack of toursists, I'm loving this Paris-in-November thing.

With a certain song from Beach Blanket Babylon running through my head (I'm guessing only my immediate family will know that reference) and visions of Rachel, Andy, and I playing tag in the gardens (oh, what I childhood I led!), we toured the Chateau, ate sandsiches for lunch on a bench near the grand staircase out back, and walked a lot more than we intended (we may have gotten a bit turned about trying to exit).

We visited the Grand et Petit Trianon as well as Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet for the first time (at least I think it was my first time - Parents? Did we go there?). I loved seeing her cottages. It was all so adorable and so very fake. If the Occupy protestors are angry about the wealth distribution nowdays, can you imagine the anger back then? At least Wall Street isn't dressing up as hispters on the weekends and pretending to go to job interviews for fun.

Like many a tourist before us, we both dozed on the train ride home. We ate dinner, as you saw, at a very old (but average-tasting) cafe near our hotel, and miraculously made it through a three-course French dinner in just over an hour -- just in time for our movies-abroad tradition!

Twilight is just about what you'd expect, but I especially enjoyed our audience - they laughed at all the right spots (like when Bella announced the baby names she'd picked out) and several guys "Whoo-hoo!"-ed when Jacob took his shirt off within 5 seconds of appearing on screen.

A quick walk home, dozens of photos uploaded, a blog entry typed, and we're about ready for bed. Things are going so well I don't have any great stories to tell. The best I can offer is how Jason and I commented on the awkwardness of our beds last night, given that they're pushed right up againnst each other. For modesty's sake we pushed them apart as far as we could (about 3 inches), but it still felt strangely matrimonial. I think Jason probably found my nearness handy, though, since he apparently spent half the night waking me up to stop my snoring. He eventually gave up and put in earplugs. Or so he tells me - I, of course, remember nothing. I am my father'ss daughter, after all!

A Bad Pun

2011-11-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

(The photo entries below are a series of details I noticed throughout my day:)

A Mam Tending to the Descendants of Marie-Antoinette's Geese

2011-11-22T15:02:00.001-07:00

A Fowl with Amazing Spitting Powers!

2011-11-22T15:00:00.002-07:00

Rainbows on the Paintings From the Chandeliers

2011-11-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

"Gardening Tools"

2011-11-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

A Soldier Who's Light on His Feet

2011-11-22T14:59:00.001-07:00

Mushroom/ Umbrella Topiaries

2011-11-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

A Sign That Should Have Included Latin

2011-11-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

Frescoes Being Repaired

2011-11-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Vegetarian Tigers

2011-11-22T14:56:00.001-07:00

Plumes on the Bedtops

2011-11-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Tourists Who Flouted the Rules for the Sake of a Good Picture

2011-11-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

They Used Antlers in All of Their Decorating!

2011-11-22T14:54:00.001-07:00

Disdainful Busts

2011-11-22T14:53:00.001-07:00

Pretty Window Latches!

2011-11-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

Vegetarian Tigers

2011-11-22T14:52:00.001-07:00

Sunflowers for the Sun King

2011-11-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

A Dog as Patient as the Savior

2011-11-22T14:51:00.001-07:00

Silly Loops for Curtain Hooks

2011-11-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

A Picturesque Construction Cover that Exaggerates the Area's Foliage

2011-11-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

Sunlight on the New King's Gate

2011-11-22T14:48:00.001-07:00

Painted Tree Shadows

2011-11-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

In addition to the tassels, here's a series of photos of details I noticed throughout the day:

Our Bad Movies in Foreign Lands Tradition Continues!

2011-11-22T14:27:00.001-07:00

Yes. That one.

Dinner

2011-11-22T14:25:00.001-07:00

Le Procope, established in 1686.

(The food was, as Rick Steves said, average. I liked the onion soup the best.)

The Hamlet Cows and Sheep

2011-11-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

The Hamlet

2011-11-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

Trees Around the Hamlet

2011-11-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

The Petit Trianon and the French Pavillion

2011-11-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Grand Trianon

2011-11-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

Loved the Tassels!

2011-11-22T14:16:00.003-07:00

If that blue one hadn't been behind glass, I would have fixed that thread. It was driving me nuts!

Trees Around the Gardens

2011-11-22T14:16:00.002-07:00

Where They Ate, What We Ate

2011-11-22T14:16:00.001-07:00

Letona Fountain

2011-11-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

Walking to the Trianon, etc.

2011-11-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

Where They Ate, What We Ate...

2011-11-22T14:14:00.001-07:00

We got sandwiches to go and ate in a bench in the gardens - a life of luxury indeed!

Garden Views

2011-11-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

The King and Queen's Bedrooms

2011-11-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

(and the door she escaped through!)

More Hall of Mirrors Details

2011-11-22T14:09:00.001-07:00

Panorama of the Hall of Mirrors

2011-11-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

(For my Humanities class.)

The Hall of Mirrors

2011-11-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Every Little Breeze Seems to Whisper...

2011-11-22T14:06:00.001-07:00

Interior Views of Versailles

2011-11-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

The Chapel

2011-11-22T14:04:00.001-07:00

Complete with the first of many class field trips we saw today.

Exterior Views of Versailles

2011-11-22T14:03:00.001-07:00

Versailles!

2011-11-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

Day Two

2011-11-22T14:00:00.001-07:00

Began with a pain au chocolate at the Fontaine St.-Michel where we caught the RER to...