Ok, so I am utterly bored on this boring Sunday. So what better time to write a blog, right? Probably wrong, but I'm doing it anyway. I am trying to come up with good stories as I type this intro. And so far nothing. So I am going to keep typing random nonsense until something comes to mind. Bears. They lost. Evangeline Lilly! STORY!
Those French Band Members sure now how to make a girl feel pretty.
So, as per usual, Sapna and I were the only ones getting our dance on at MaNolan's on a pretty dead Tuesday night. So there we were, dancing like it was our full time job. And since we figure we lend the entertainment for the band, we also figure that the band should be at our mercy. Thus, we make requests and expect them to play them for us. Usually it works out nicely. Sometimes an evil look has to be dealt, though. But anyway, I went up to the singer and asked him to play Oasis. To which he agreed. And then on the mic he goes...You sort of look like Kate from "Lost". I don't know if you take it as a compliment, but you do. To which Sapna goes "Yeah, it's definitely a compliment for her." And then singer says "OK good. So are you and Kate sisters?"
Me: Yeah. She's my older sister.
Singer: Really?
Me: Yes.
Singer: Haha. Well maybe you can bring her with you next time.
Me: Ok, that wasn't as smooth a compliment.
Singer: Um...Today is gonna be the day when they're gonna throw it back to you...
Money Money Money
So Thursday I started to teach my lesson on American money, with the intermittent English Pound thrown in there. And then I brought in the one American dollar I was able to save, which was like gold to the kids. That was until they had the smarts to ask me how much it was worth. And me and my sarcastic brilliance tell them 'compared to the euro? About a cent[ime].' So the teacher thinks this is funny. But now my students are severely led astray. I tried teaching them the correct amount, but I think it's still etched in their minds that the dollar was 1/100th of their euro. Needless to say, a lot of them probably booked their tickets to America already, hoping to take advantage of that exchange rate and buy their Justin Timberlake and 'Feefty Cents' albums there.
The Creepy Electricians
Ok, so granted I sleep in until crazy hours when I don't have work because A) I have nothing better to do B) I usually stay up super late C) I have amazing dreams here. So there was nothing more annoying to me than the stupid electricians right outside my door doing Heavens-knows-what, but seemingly with a chainsaw and a dying cow. Anyway, an hour later, there is a knock on the door. They are asking us to come in to see if some wires lead to our apartment or something. Alix and I just looked at each other and then they were like 'oh...no speak French?'. We said we did, we were just weirded out by random dudes coming into the apartment. Ok, we didn't say that. We actually said fine. But our body language displayed those former thoughts beautifully.
Anyway, they say thank you and leave. Two minutes later. Knock, knock. Sure, go ahead. Five minutes later. Uh huh, whatever. Go.
The next day.
I had my boy for tutoring. Knock on the door. They wanted to know if our TV was working. I said yes, the only thing that wasn't working was our kitchen light but more likely cause of the lightbulb. Then he starts talking to my boy that I am tutoring about Rugby. Who would have thought that the sweet 13 year old and the old electrician would have so much in common?
Anyway, after saying my bulb was out, he offered to change it for me, which was so exciting cause the last time I tried, I electrocuted the hell out of myself and spent the night tweezing metal shards out of my hand (I should not have admitted that in writing).
So after changing it, and me thanking him like 5 times over again, he goes 'you can repay me with a cup of coffee at noon tomorrow.' I laugh and say I only drink tea, but see you then, fully expecting to not be around then, if, on the off chance, he was serious.
So the next day I am heading out to work, and then he goes 'see you for tea'. I again laugh, and leave quickly. Then when I arrive home that night from work he was like 'you weren't there. I tried knocking and thought you were ignoring me.' Me: I told you I had work today..."
That night I double-bolted the doors for the first time in months :).
The Leak
So the electricians somehow sprung a leak somewhere, and so this other random guy knocks on my door and hands me a note. I read it, and looked miffed, so again 'No French?". Um, I do. My look is in regards to the fact that the water isn't working. And the fact that it won't be for the rest of the night. But, I had plans for that night. And they included showering and shaving. So, in a flash of brilliance, I run to the store and get those huge bottles of water to use for drinking/cooking/ghetto makeshift showering.
I am cracking up even writing this. Picture me with razor in hand, babywipes, and a giant bottle of water in my other hand. And then me pouring it all over myself. It definitely took me back to my Romanian roots. I now have a better appreciation of those 'when I was your age' stories. Obviously with the added inconvenience of women having to shave these days.
But in all fairness, it sucked at the time, but it makes a great story now. At least in my mind it does.
Might as well face it, I'm addicted to Carambars
So, for Valentine's Day coming up, I figured I could make a fun lesson of it. So I had my mom send me little Valentine's for all my French Fries, and I bought them candy to stick onto the Valentines (again, the leverage candy offers a teacher to get the kids to shut up is worth way more than the money spent on 6 bags of candy). But, I buy them this same crappy candy everytime. They are called Carambars, and they are just fruit flavored caramels, along with coke flavored and caramel.
But yesterday while I was preparing some of them, I was craving something sweet, so I unwrapped one, popped it in my mouth....and I frickin' loved it. Caramel flavor is sooo good. And now I fear I may end up eating all the candy before I have it to use as leverage. Thank goodness I don't like the other flavors. If anyone wants to have a little taste, let me know, and I can arrange it to give you a taste of my addiction.
Ils m'aiment :)
Last Thursday at one of my classes, one of the girls comes up to me and tells me so and so is in love with me. And then to make matters even worse for him, she walks in the room and points to him and goes 'See, it's him. He is in love with you.' So that was a little uncomfortable.
And then in my next class I am waiting for the other class to head into the room, and then one of the boys comes up and leans against the wall next to me, crosses his arms, and says the equivalent of "hey baby, how you doin'?"
So clearly, the only Frenchmen that show interest are the 8 year old ones. Not exactly what I was hoping for upon my arrival...It would be awesome if I was that Letorneau teacher, though.
The Dina's Day Parade
Some of my French Fries are going to be in a parade, because apparently the opening day of Carnivale always entails an opening parade where they introduce the king of Carnivale, and behind him marches students from all over Nice. So 4 of my classes are going to be in it, so I wanted to make sure I knew all the details so I could go see them.
However, as I was trying to ask one of my classes when the parade was starting and so on, the teacher comes up to me all excitedly and told me to bring in a white tee-shirt so she can make one for me incorporating the Rugby Parade theme (Rugby is a common theme in this e-mail apparently), and then I can accompany them. She got really happy saying how much the parents would love that. So I am not sure how I feel about this, yet. But it's next Friday, so I will let you know how it goes, if it goes. Again, I hope I really understood her properly, too. What a bummer to show up and have gotten it alll wrong :).
Ok, so I think that's all I've got for you.
There was definitely a story I was meaning to write about that I can't for the life of me remember right now. I'll be sure to make mention of it when I do remember it, however. But in the meantime I will happily OD on caramel carambars.
Keep sending the e-mails. Matt K...you're definitely in the lead for most entertaining and consistent e-mails. Keep up the good work. David, you're exempt this week for the phone call (but not for the music you were supposed to send). Mom, you're exempt, Megan, lifetime exemption status...and so on. I wouldn't mind e-mails from you all, though :)
I miss you all very much!!
XOXOXO
Dina
Those French Band Members sure now how to make a girl feel pretty.
So, as per usual, Sapna and I were the only ones getting our dance on at MaNolan's on a pretty dead Tuesday night. So there we were, dancing like it was our full time job. And since we figure we lend the entertainment for the band, we also figure that the band should be at our mercy. Thus, we make requests and expect them to play them for us. Usually it works out nicely. Sometimes an evil look has to be dealt, though. But anyway, I went up to the singer and asked him to play Oasis. To which he agreed. And then on the mic he goes...You sort of look like Kate from "Lost". I don't know if you take it as a compliment, but you do. To which Sapna goes "Yeah, it's definitely a compliment for her." And then singer says "OK good. So are you and Kate sisters?"
Me: Yeah. She's my older sister.
Singer: Really?
Me: Yes.
Singer: Haha. Well maybe you can bring her with you next time.
Me: Ok, that wasn't as smooth a compliment.
Singer: Um...Today is gonna be the day when they're gonna throw it back to you...
Money Money Money
So Thursday I started to teach my lesson on American money, with the intermittent English Pound thrown in there. And then I brought in the one American dollar I was able to save, which was like gold to the kids. That was until they had the smarts to ask me how much it was worth. And me and my sarcastic brilliance tell them 'compared to the euro? About a cent[ime].' So the teacher thinks this is funny. But now my students are severely led astray. I tried teaching them the correct amount, but I think it's still etched in their minds that the dollar was 1/100th of their euro. Needless to say, a lot of them probably booked their tickets to America already, hoping to take advantage of that exchange rate and buy their Justin Timberlake and 'Feefty Cents' albums there.
The Creepy Electricians
Ok, so granted I sleep in until crazy hours when I don't have work because A) I have nothing better to do B) I usually stay up super late C) I have amazing dreams here. So there was nothing more annoying to me than the stupid electricians right outside my door doing Heavens-knows-what, but seemingly with a chainsaw and a dying cow. Anyway, an hour later, there is a knock on the door. They are asking us to come in to see if some wires lead to our apartment or something. Alix and I just looked at each other and then they were like 'oh...no speak French?'. We said we did, we were just weirded out by random dudes coming into the apartment. Ok, we didn't say that. We actually said fine. But our body language displayed those former thoughts beautifully.
Anyway, they say thank you and leave. Two minutes later. Knock, knock. Sure, go ahead. Five minutes later. Uh huh, whatever. Go.
The next day.
I had my boy for tutoring. Knock on the door. They wanted to know if our TV was working. I said yes, the only thing that wasn't working was our kitchen light but more likely cause of the lightbulb. Then he starts talking to my boy that I am tutoring about Rugby. Who would have thought that the sweet 13 year old and the old electrician would have so much in common?
Anyway, after saying my bulb was out, he offered to change it for me, which was so exciting cause the last time I tried, I electrocuted the hell out of myself and spent the night tweezing metal shards out of my hand (I should not have admitted that in writing).
So after changing it, and me thanking him like 5 times over again, he goes 'you can repay me with a cup of coffee at noon tomorrow.' I laugh and say I only drink tea, but see you then, fully expecting to not be around then, if, on the off chance, he was serious.
So the next day I am heading out to work, and then he goes 'see you for tea'. I again laugh, and leave quickly. Then when I arrive home that night from work he was like 'you weren't there. I tried knocking and thought you were ignoring me.' Me: I told you I had work today..."
That night I double-bolted the doors for the first time in months :).
The Leak
So the electricians somehow sprung a leak somewhere, and so this other random guy knocks on my door and hands me a note. I read it, and looked miffed, so again 'No French?". Um, I do. My look is in regards to the fact that the water isn't working. And the fact that it won't be for the rest of the night. But, I had plans for that night. And they included showering and shaving. So, in a flash of brilliance, I run to the store and get those huge bottles of water to use for drinking/cooking/ghetto makeshift showering.
I am cracking up even writing this. Picture me with razor in hand, babywipes, and a giant bottle of water in my other hand. And then me pouring it all over myself. It definitely took me back to my Romanian roots. I now have a better appreciation of those 'when I was your age' stories. Obviously with the added inconvenience of women having to shave these days.
But in all fairness, it sucked at the time, but it makes a great story now. At least in my mind it does.
Might as well face it, I'm addicted to Carambars
So, for Valentine's Day coming up, I figured I could make a fun lesson of it. So I had my mom send me little Valentine's for all my French Fries, and I bought them candy to stick onto the Valentines (again, the leverage candy offers a teacher to get the kids to shut up is worth way more than the money spent on 6 bags of candy). But, I buy them this same crappy candy everytime. They are called Carambars, and they are just fruit flavored caramels, along with coke flavored and caramel.
But yesterday while I was preparing some of them, I was craving something sweet, so I unwrapped one, popped it in my mouth....and I frickin' loved it. Caramel flavor is sooo good. And now I fear I may end up eating all the candy before I have it to use as leverage. Thank goodness I don't like the other flavors. If anyone wants to have a little taste, let me know, and I can arrange it to give you a taste of my addiction.
Ils m'aiment :)
Last Thursday at one of my classes, one of the girls comes up to me and tells me so and so is in love with me. And then to make matters even worse for him, she walks in the room and points to him and goes 'See, it's him. He is in love with you.' So that was a little uncomfortable.
And then in my next class I am waiting for the other class to head into the room, and then one of the boys comes up and leans against the wall next to me, crosses his arms, and says the equivalent of "hey baby, how you doin'?"
So clearly, the only Frenchmen that show interest are the 8 year old ones. Not exactly what I was hoping for upon my arrival...It would be awesome if I was that Letorneau teacher, though.
The Dina's Day Parade
Some of my French Fries are going to be in a parade, because apparently the opening day of Carnivale always entails an opening parade where they introduce the king of Carnivale, and behind him marches students from all over Nice. So 4 of my classes are going to be in it, so I wanted to make sure I knew all the details so I could go see them.
However, as I was trying to ask one of my classes when the parade was starting and so on, the teacher comes up to me all excitedly and told me to bring in a white tee-shirt so she can make one for me incorporating the Rugby Parade theme (Rugby is a common theme in this e-mail apparently), and then I can accompany them. She got really happy saying how much the parents would love that. So I am not sure how I feel about this, yet. But it's next Friday, so I will let you know how it goes, if it goes. Again, I hope I really understood her properly, too. What a bummer to show up and have gotten it alll wrong :).
Ok, so I think that's all I've got for you.
There was definitely a story I was meaning to write about that I can't for the life of me remember right now. I'll be sure to make mention of it when I do remember it, however. But in the meantime I will happily OD on caramel carambars.
Keep sending the e-mails. Matt K...you're definitely in the lead for most entertaining and consistent e-mails. Keep up the good work. David, you're exempt this week for the phone call (but not for the music you were supposed to send). Mom, you're exempt, Megan, lifetime exemption status...and so on. I wouldn't mind e-mails from you all, though :)
I miss you all very much!!
XOXOXO
Dina
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