Happy Birthday Hillary!

I had such a great birthday! My students brought treats to class and then I went and had lunch in Paris with Felipe. When I got home, my friends had put together a dinner and we all sat around and ate. It was great because everyone spent the night in our huge living room. I was a great birthday away from home. The pictures that you see are of me in first class (we snuck into the first class car on the train) and then eveyone on with dessert in their teeth. So cute:)

Valentine's Day

I know that this shows how far behind I am but I am working on it. For Valentine's Day with the young women we had a little cookie party. They really went to town with it... three plates of cookies.

PSG

Paris has a football team called Paris St. Germain. Unfortunately they are no good but the assistants went anyway. The crowd was out of control.

PS The boys that you see sitting in front of Stefan, Imara et Luisa were smoking some sort of cannabis cigarettes... I think that helps the crowd get louder.

La Pena 1 and 2

There is a salsa club in Paris called la Pena that unforunately is selective about who can enter so we decided to create our own. We had tortillas (which in South America is more than flat bread but tuna, potatoes and eggs) and lots of great Latin music.

PS We did finally enter the real La Pena. Those of you coming to Paris, I highly recommend it; it is so choice.

Notre Dame

I walk past Notre Dame at least twice a week, it is just between the places I like to go. What I love is that A it makes me feel Parisian 2 there is always something going on in the area in front of the church (for example at Christmas time they had a huge tree etc)and D it is just beautiful in it grandness. I always end up stopping and watching the people who preform tricks on roller blades. I am just amazed at how fast they are. Sometimes they use just one wheel.

Peoples Discotheque

Here in Fontainbleau-Avon there is not much of a night life. Yes there are bars and restaurants but that scene can get to be a bit old. Going to Paris to go out usually means having to take the 12h30 train home which takes twice as long to arrive back to Fontainebleau or staying in the city all night. So we assistants discovered Peoples Discotheque; a small dance club which is situated under a grocery store (it is built on a hill) and most of the time seems deserted. In fact we did not know if it was still in business. Honestly and unfortunately is was a waste of time and money because it was empty except for a handful of strange people ie the "celebrity" who wore glowing plastic jewelery. But, I have to say that the night was not totally worthless. We all had a lot of energy and had some good laughs. I laughed so hard I cried when Luisa and Yvonne went through the McDo drive through on foot. There really are never dull moments even living in a small town.

The Museums

One of the many perks of being almost a real teacher is the many places that grant free access for all those with a professional card (which I have) and most of these places are museums. I spend several of my days taking a 30 min tour of my two favorite museums. The first being the Orsay Museum. I love this one because it was once a train station and the entrance is extremely spacious and filled with sculptures. The second is the Rodin Museum. Here you enter directly into the garden that is also filled with his sculptures. When the weather is fine I can sit in this garden for hours on the wooden lounge chairs contemplating the beauty of his skill.