Welcome Home!

So, I've done some more recent decorating. There's still so much more that I would love to do, but I'm on a limited budget here. As much as I would love to, it makes no sense spending a ton of money to make an apartment adorable so that I can live in it for 5 more months.

Now, without further ado (sp?)- let me take you on a tour of my apartment in Toulouse

We walk into the foyer... aka the hallway.

To the right, you will find the lovely and frequently busy kitchen.
 




Thanks to www.leboncoin.com, our kitchen is now complete with a fridge and a washing machine! No oven though.

One of the women in charge of the program let us borrow a table and chairs from her while we are here!








Our kitchen also comes stocked with a nice, roomy cabinet. That is now full of food.







To the left of the hallway, we have our living room!





We got the couches and table from leboncoin.com as well. Christophe let us borrow the fold out table and the TV is from the same women who lent us the kitchen table!

If you can believe it, this is the few from our balcony, which is right off of the living room. Not too shabby.




Down the hallway a little further to the right, we have our bathroom/shower. Unlike at home, our shower is separate from our toilet, which is at the end of the hallway.

And to the left at the end of the hallway, we have my room!

So, once again thanks to leboncoin, I was able to decorate my room! From this website, which is kind of like Craigslist, I got this awesome sofa bed thing that folds up like a futon. I also got a desk and chair that the woman was kind enough to deliver herself! I got the bedside table from Ikea and put it together myself. And the tapestry (along with the one in the living room) is mine from home.

      

Sorry it took so long for me to get those pictures up! It doesn't help that my camera is broken and my Droid got locked somehow, so it doesn't always let me use the camera.

I'm gonna go make some lunch and get to lesson planning! Tomorrow I'm teaching lessons about bullying, mythological creatures of the UK, and honey bees... wish me luck!

Back into the swing of things... pretty much.

Hello everyone!! I hope you've all been doing well and keeping busy since my last post! Things have been a little crazy on this end.

It seems like I was sick for the entire school break. After the worst of the cold was over, the cough and the runny nose didn't feel like going anywhere for a while, of course. So, I still looked and sounded sick for a while even though I felt fine. Then, all of a sudden, the symptoms were gone with one more weekend left in the vacation. Then, literally the day after, I started feeling really nauseous and having constant stomach aches. It came out of nowhere. And it did not go away for the rest of the weekend. I was supposed to go back to school last Monday and I wasn't able to get out of bed and make it to school until Thursday, where I still had to sit down to teach because I was feeling so dizzy.

You can be sure my teddy bear, Slappy, was by my side the whole  time.

So, that afternoon (with the help of my wonderful teachers) I made it to the doctor and got myself some medicine and a note excusing me from working the whole week. The verdict- an intestinal infection. Sounds fun, right? I stayed home and rested up the whole weekend. It was much needed. The worst part is I'm supposed to eat a really basic, bland diet and I'm getting pretty tired of plain rice and plain couscous. But, even my stomach still hurts now if I get even a little adventurous with my food. Hopefully i'll be able to spice it up soon.

I should have gone to the doctor sooner, but I was really nervous being so far from home and feeling so terrible. I haven't had my mandatory medical visit with the immigration office yet, so I don't have my social security here set up yet. I knew that any medical costs would be reimbursed to me eventually, but I wasn't sure how much it would cost me in the mean time. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to explain to the doctor what was wrong. I wasn't sure what doctor to go to. I was miserable and just wanted to be home. My poor Mama had to just sit there and watch me cry and skype while there was nothing she could do to help, as much as I know she wanted to. When I finally realized that I just need to make myself go, I e-mailed some of my teachers and they were all incredibly helpful, finding my doctors in my area and telling me all of the information I wasn't sure of. One of my teachers actually called and made the appointment for me and drove me to the office. I felt like a bit like a child, but at that point, I had so little energy that it was more than welcome.

I went back to school today (I had yesterday off) and it went well. I got a bit dizzy and had to sit down during my second class, but I think that's because I didn't eat breakfast. I can't eat very much or very quickly at the moment, so rushing food into my stomach early morning just didn't sound appealing. I ended up working an hour more today than I was scheduled, but it will end up being easier. Instead of remembering which level I saw on what day, we're making it so that one Tuesday I'll work 5 hours and the next Tuesday I'll work 3 hours and this way it'll keep the classes at the same level.

Today was actually a really good day, but it started out a little hectic. I had to go to school early to print and make copies. This morning when I woke up, I remembered the my bus/metro pass expired yesterday. I left my apartment even earlier than planned with the intention of walking to the metro station to renew my card. (It's only a 15 minute walk, but before sunrise it seems much more daunting). Thankfully, before I got to the bus stop, I remembered that I could just buy a one way ticket that would let me use the bus and metro this morning. So I did that and renewed my card when I went home for lunch. When I got to school (at about 7:00 AM) I realized that I didn't have my computer or copier code on me. I called my roommate, Anna, who was still home, thank goodness, and she found them and gave them to me. After that, it was smooth sailing. I taught 4 classes in a row about Thanksgiving, which the students all seemed to enjoy. I went home for lunch and had a nap before going back to school at 3:30. For this class, I had taught half of them the Tuesday before break, and I taught the other half today. They were learning about Mt. Rushmore, so they asked me questions about Lincoln and Roosevelt (I was able to research the questions ahead of time) and we talked about the US election. These students are pretty advanced and they were able to have a pretty in depth conversation about the election that was enjoyable for all of us.

After classes were done, I met with the principal, who asked if I wanted to teach an additional English class on Tuesday nights for some extra money! Cool, huh? It's not going to be much extra, but it'll be some extra spending saving money. Right.

Also, I've been going kind of crazy trying to plan my travel plans for during the Christmas holiday. I've got my flight booked to Dublin, we have our hotel in Dublin and a hotel in Normandy booked. We still need a hotel in London and transportation between all of these places and back to Toulouse. It's a lot of work (and money) planning the trip, but I AM SO EXCITED! I hate hate hate spending money in large sums, but honestly, when am I going to get the chance to travel this conveniently again? I'm not. So, I've got to bite the bullet. Which also means saving as much money as I can while I'm here in Toulouse. As much as I hate spending large sums, I seem to love spending lots of little sums, which add up. I just can't help buying a kebab after a late night out, can you blame me??

Do you have any advice about my upcoming vacation? Any London hotel suggestions? Train/plane/ferry ideas? Let me know, I need all the help I can get!

I taught 4 lessons about Thanksgiving today. I can't even begin to explain to you how sad it makes me that I won't be home for this delicious festivity. However, we're trying to make the most of it here. We're keeping it simple Thursday, but we're going to have a big Thanksgiving lunch on Saturday so that our neighbors don't complain. A bunch of assistants/friends (American and English alike) are going to come over and bring food and we'll celebrate together. But, I hope you all have a fantastic turkey day with your families. I know I'll be missing mine. But, in the spirit of the holiday, I'm thankful to have such a supportive family and group of friends. I'm thankful that I have this opportunity and even though it's different being away for this long, I know how lucky I am to be here.

Oh, and I spoke a ton of French today and totally rocked it. Ouais.

Warning: I'm getting political.

I am so proud and happy and I feel like I've had a weight lifted off of my chest. I'm all the way in France and I was unfortunately unable to vote. You have to get your absentee ballot WAY in advance and I couldn't afford to take a trip to the embassy in Paris at the moment. I'll admit I didn't plan ahead as well as I could have. But, I was so worried that Romney would win and that I wouldn't be able to say anything because I didn't vote. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
As a woman, I am glad that my right to control my own body wasn't taken away. In my opinion, if you don't have a uterus you can't tell a woman what to do with hers. Even if you have a uterus, you can't tell another woman what to do with hers. There is absolutely nothing okay about claiming different levels of rape. Nothing. Claiming a woman should accept this "gift from God" is a ridiculous statement and immeasurably offensive.
As a bisexual woman, I'm happy that 4 more states voted to end marriage discrimination. Openly gay politicians were elected. With these changes, we're moving in the right direction. If I fall in love with a woman, I want to be able to have the same exact rights as any other citizen. Not a civil partnership. A marriage, including the right to raise children without being discriminated against.
As a young person who still has plenty of schooling ahead of her, it's important that I have a president willing to work with America's youth and help them with education. Everyone should be able to go to school. No one should have to miss out on the opportunities education provides because they can't afford it.
As a non-religious American, I strongly believe that we need to keep any kind of faith outside of politics. Christian beliefs should not have any connection to the laws that are created in our country. Church and state are supposed to be separate and that's how it should stay. We are a country made up of so many different beliefs and heritages. Believe it or not, not everyone in America is christian. Assuming everyone should follow laws set to one sector of faith is so absurd that I can't even fathom it. I will never disrespect anyone's religious views, but no God should have a place in the laws we abide by.

This is all my opinion and the great thing is, you're welcome to your own! There will never be a time when 100% of Americans agree on any topic. But, instead of sitting there fighting over these differences, we need to work together to make a change. If you want change- go do it. Go volunteer at a local shelter. Make telephone calls in support of what you believe. Pick up the garbage someone dropped in front of you. Our actions make a difference. You cannot sit there and be angry about nothing changing without trying to make a change yourself. It's time to work together.

 It was so interesting being in another country while the election was going on. The French are VERY pro-Obama. But, then again, so is a very large majority of the world. I've spoken to so many people who live in various countries throughout Europe and they were all just as terrified as I was at the possibility of Romney being elected. It's funny to me that the entire world is sitting there going, "really, America? What's the difficult choice here?" It just shows how our priorities are different I suppose. I even got an e-mail from one of the teachers I work with that just said "Obama! We did it!" And I laughed because he's French, but I feel so relieved at the outcome, along with the rest of the world.

Okay, back to France.

On the first Sunday of each month, all of the museums in Toulouse are free. We went to 2 of them this past Sunday. We saw the artwork that decorates the inside of the capitol building, which was really cool.
You can get married in this room:


































We also went to the Natural History Museum, which was interesting. I'm used to going to huge, really scientific and historically accurate museums in New York. Well this was not like that.
Unless they somehow dug this fossil up:

Although maybe not entirely historically accurate, it was still interesting to see a different side of Toulouse. You know, one outside of a bar. After the museums we went to a creperie called Le Sherpa and had tea, salads, crepes, and a couple pitchers of cider to share. I had a caramel banana crepe with whipped cream and it was too delicious for words. This place makes their own chocolate, caramel, and whipped cream and it is so yummy. The tea and salad were really good tea. And obviously the cider.

Currently there's not a cloud in the sky here in Toulouse. So I'm going to shower and venture to some of the beautiful gardens that this city has to offer. It also helps that gardens are free because, unfortunately, Tori needs to learn the art of budgeting. Oops. 

They see me trollin'...

I'm not feeling really well still, so I'm not going to complain for an entire post again, but here's a pic from Halloween before we went out!

Let me tell you... it took a longggg time to de-troll the hair the next morning. Ouchhh.