Back To Work...

After my jam-packed weekend with the models I was done with vacation and was back to the work life.  By that I mean back to working only Mondays and Tuesdays.  


After my first day back on Monday (which I'm starting to like more and more as I get to know the kids and teachers better) we had our first volleyball match of the season that I couldn't play in because I didn't have my license yet.  I went anyway and kept score of the game (we don't have official refs or anything, usually the home team provides a ref/score keeper), and then afterwards we brought out a bunch of food to eat together, both the home and away teams.  I was super surprised to find out, however, that we had started at 8 and the match didn't get over until 11:00!  And THEN we ate.  


By the time I was back home it was about 12:30, and I was already whipped and therefore not looking forward to having to wake up early the next morning for work.  I sent Isabelle a text that said I would just bike to school the next morning, so she didn't have to wait for me to give me a ride, which gave me a few extra minutes of sleep.


The next morning was pouring rain.  I woke up too late to ask for a ride, so I was stuck with my bike.  I was drenched and freezing cold when I got to school.  I left my bike there at Van Gogh (the name of the school) and caught the bus to Vissenty for the afternoon.  It had stopped raining when we were done so Isabelle took me to my bike and I rode it home, after which I have no recollection of what I did o_O 


On Wednesday I was planning on meeting up with Holly in town for a bite to eat and was really looking forward to sleeping in, when and I woke up to a text from Fabienne that said she would pick me up in 15 minutes. I had totally forgotten that I was supposed to teach Thomas that day.  Everything worked out though, because Holly wasn't able to make it into to town till later that afternoon anyway.  


So after a couple hours basically just hanging out with Thomas and eating a delicious lunch Fabienne took me home and I took my bike into town to meet up with Holly.  We gave Ashley a ring too and we all hung out for a couple hours, getting a drink at a café and unsuccessfully looking for s'mores stuff.  That night I think I bought Skyrim on eBay. 


On Thursday Ashley and I met up in the afternoon for lunch, but we kept it simple and just got a sandwich from a boulangerie and enjoyed the sun, who had decided to join us for the end of the week.  Ashley was prepping to go to Grenoble that weekend to go bungie jumping, so I wished her good luck and I went back home to prepare for my own weekend, starting that night.


Alex, Marion, Thibaut, Guillemette and I all went down to Valence for this soirée étudiant at a club called Blue Note; basically a huge party for university-aged students.  We got there and waited in line for at least an hour before we were finally let in.  It was only 6€ for the entry and you got two drink tickets, which was sweet!  


Observation: Again, I don't go clubbing very often in the States, but I noticed something cool about this club.  Whoever is driving the party gets a special wristband after he or she gives their keys over the counter to someone, who returns the keys only after the driver blows either or 0 alcohol rating or whatever they decide is a reasonable enough number to drive. I think it's 0 though...


Anyway, the club. was. huge.  SO many people there!  I wanna say at least a thousand.  It was incredible.  I loved the atmosphere, minus the crazies.  There's always crazies.  We partied it up until like 3:45, and were out of there by 4.  That's 4 a.m., by the way.  After carpooling back to Annonay, Guillemette finally dropped me off at home around 5:30 I think.  


I honestly am doing my best to remember what happened on Friday, and I can't come up with anything.  Biggest mystery of my life.  Apparently I tweeted this "I love green apple candy but I'm not that big of a fan of green apples... #youcantexplainthat" but have no idea why I did.   


Saturday was also really fun.  In the morning, I got up and biked down into town where they were having this big market for people from all around Ardèche.  Even people from Germany and Italy came to sell their goods, it was really cool to walk around and just browse.  Turns out one of my team mates, Rémy, had his own booth for selling apple and apricot juice that he makes himself.  They were both heavenly, and I look forward to drinking more throughout the year.


Later, in the early afternoon Alex, Thibaut and I did some grocery shopping for that night's soirée raclette.  Raclettes are a popular dish that consist of cooked potatoes, melted cheese, and meat. Lots and lots of meat.  We had a type of salami, ham, hot dogs, and some other stuff that I either didn't recognize or don't remember the name of.


As we were shopping I saw Skyrim sitting all by its lonesome on the shelf.  I held it for a while in awe, but eventually had to move on. I would have the next week, in English...


After taking care of the groceries we met up with Guillemette and Océane by chance at the wedding store in Annonay for a few minutes before heading out to St. Victor where the garçons live.  I got to meet Alex's mom, dad, and sister at his house, which is super nice, and we all enjoyed a glass of locally bottled apple juice, which was devine.  


We grabbed his raclette machine, which melts cheese in little trays and then cooks meat on top, and then headed out towards Thibaut's house.  We stopped though at this little turf soccer field that had basketball hoops to kick/shoot around as we waited for the girls to get ready and come over.  


Eventually we ended up at Thibaut's, preparing the potatoes and setting places for everyone.  There were seven of us total, including some of their friends and Thibaut's brother Greg, who he lives with.  After we were all set, we stuffed ourselves to the brim with potatoes, meat, and cheese.  I've never felt so good/bad at the same time.  The good news is that it was so delicious I didn't even care.  I hope I'm not getting fat...


We started a movie called Sexy Dance 3, which you might know as Step Up 3D.  Why the name change? No idea.  I thought it was hilarious, and if you would like to laugh you are hereby invited to do so.  We didn't get very far into it, as we had plans to go to another party and it was starting to get late.  So we headed out to St. Alban to the soirée célibataire, or the party for singles!  


It was relatively small compared to the club we were at a nights earlier, and 90% of the people there were still in high school.  Alex explained to me that it was because most people in that area our age are at their universities during this time of year, which makes sense.  


It was also much more savage than the club we were at in Valence.  There was your typical circle of bros who just push each other around during a song and ruin it for everyone else.  I ended up on the ground one time because I got shoved by an unexpected prepubescent hulk of a boy who happened I happened to be standing by at the wrong place at the wrong time.  I also witnessed two fights, neither of which slowed nor excited the pace of the party.  People pretty much just danced around them until their friends broke it up.  We left around 2:30 to Thibaut's, and then Guillemette once again took me from St. Victor to my cozy home in Davézieux. 


After a peaceful sleep, I met up again with Alex, Thibaut, and Guillemette on Sunday to go to this little lake that is kindof close to Anonnay.  It was a beautiful day, as it had been all weekend, so I got some pretty decent pictures.  We were planning on taking a dip, which isn't allowed, but the water was freezing butt cold anyway so we only went up to our knees before giving up and getting dry.  Then we walked around the lake, which is about 4 km if I remember correctly.  

There were a lot of people there, as the weather was great and people go typically walking together on Sundays.  Afterwards we were all pretty hungry, so we drove back to St. Victor to Thibaut's to finish off the potatoes, cheese, and meat from the night before and also to finish watching Step Up.  The dancing was really impressive, and I understood most of the plot, which there wasn't much of to begin with.  Not that I was expecting "Inception" with a dance twist or anything...


For the third night that weekend Guillemette brought me back to my house, and we said our au revoirs and à bientôts.  It was a pretty incredible week, if I do say so myself, and I was even beginning to look forward to work the next day!  Not so much the waking up part, but I think I'm starting to appreciate what it is I'm supposed to be doing here, and therefore I'm taking more of an interest in it as well.

Anyway, if I can remember anything else about that Friday I'll make sure I come back and add it.  The end! Of this post!