Happy Holidays again from Nice!

I just wanted to write to say that I hope everyone had a great Chanukah or a fantastic Christmas!! I was lucky enough to have my coordinating professor invite me to her place for both Christmas Eve, and then Christmas. I was sort of not looking forward to the evening at first, since it was catering to her older French family, but it turned out to be a really good time, and I think it would be fair to say it ended up being two days of the best food I may have ever had, and hands down the best in France. BUT, I have to mention how much the French eat!! I guess this was my first typical many course French meal with wine and champagne coming out of the rear. Just to give you an idea of how much it is, I included the menu from both the Xmas Eve dinner and the Xmas lunch....

Christmas Eve

Champagne with Olives
Red Wine
Soup with scallops and mozzarella
Spinach with hard boiled eggs
Quiche with onions and turkey
Cheese with Salad
Tea
Apple Pie
Minced Meat Pies

Christmas

Champagne
Red Wine
Smoked Salmon with herbs
Oysters
Puff Pastries with Escargot
Duck with Orange Sauce, roasted potatoes, roasted artichokes, sautéed mushrooms
Cheese with Salad
Tea
Bouche de Noel (Chocolate mousse cake)
Christmas Pudding
Minced Meat Pies
Chocolate

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday thus far, and will continue the trend by having a wonderful happy and healthy New Year! I miss you all!!!!

XOXOX,
Dina

P.S. 1 Day until Megan comes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh Snap! It's a new blog!

Hello everybody! I hope this e-mail finds you all doing well. I know it’s been awhile since I last sent an e-mail! For that I apologize (namely to Mom and Jerry). I decided to break this e-mail down into anecdotal stories, and separate them like that. I hope you enjoy!

Oh Sheet

So there is this little innocent looking girl in one of my classes (who is really a big brat, that’s neither here nor there) but she is really small, wears braided pigtails and has one of those annoyingly cute smiles. So you can imagine my surprise when she dropped her pencil and loudly exclaimed “Oh Sheet!” And then she asked me what it meant. After the damage was already done. But I told her it’s a word we don’t say in my class, which got all the other students morbidly curious, and then just made the brat girl say it more frequently. I don’t understand how they can’t retain the words “thank you” in their brains, but the curses-they’ve already got that down before I even get to them. Weird. (I, for one, didn’t learn dirty French words until college when I had to read Ancient Erotic Fables, but then again, that’s neither here nor there. Just a little traumatizing.)

London Taxi

(This one only makes sense if you know that I went to London again for the weekend.) So what’s the most politically correct thing you can conjure up in your imagination? While this may be up there, I felt I was rocking the p.c. boat pretty hard on my carbide to the airport in London. So picture it…London 2006. 4:55 am. Dina enters cab, driver closes door for her. Driver enters cab, seemingly on the wrong side (England’s all backwards). Dina sympathizes with cab driver about being up at the buttcrack of dawn. Driver drives excessively fast. Dina makes conversation to calm her nerves. Driver asks if Dina celebrates Christmas. Dina divulges that she celebrates Chanukah instead. Driver acts surprised. Dina asks if he does. Driver says he is working on Christmas but charging double. Dina, like a good Jews from. He says he lived in Germany for 15 years. Dina: So you’re German? Driver: No, I’m originally from Pakistan. Dina thinks: Wow! A German-ish Pakistani! Good thing I told him I was a Jew! Driver probably thinks: But her nose is so small!

So anyway, it was a pleasant ride. Dina learned about Driver and Driver learned about Dina. It was like “Driving Miss Jew-sy”. And we were clearly poster children for religious tolerance and world peace.

The Haircut

About 2 weeks ago, I got my haircut here, cause I figured I wanted a change, and hairdye is getting expensive, and I always managed to get the wrong kind here, too. So, Sapna had already gotten a haircut here, which she ended up hating solely for the fact that she had partial highlights (only on the top of her head) so it looked like she had a lot of colors going on. So she wanted to get her whole head dyed, so we decided to make a group effort out of it. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money, so Sapna did some research, and as it turns out, in France they charge you for the cut, for conditioner, and for “le brushing” which is them basically blowdrying your hair and styling it as they see fit. So at one place Sapna asked if she could get the highlights and forego ‘le brushing’, cause she could just do that herself at home. The lady she was asking practically gasped at this request, saying “you want us to let you leave the salon with wet hair?! Our manager will not allow it!” As if it would be a sin to be seen leaving their establishment without perfectly styled hair.

But, nevertheless, Sapna and I ended up at this reasonable place and the lady styled my hair so well. It was brilliantly straight and it looked good. The problem was, it was pouring outside, so the minute I left the salon, my hair went from fab to curly mess in 2.5 seconds. So much for “le brushing.”

Sapna’s Birthday

Here is some proper Tequila etiquette. Especially when the Tequila is grocery store unknown brand ‘silver’ Tequila.

Don’t take Tequila shots and then try to light 24 candles on a birthday cake. Someone will get burned. And it will seem funny.

Don’t take Tequila shots and then try to dance in a busy bar. You will fall.

Don’t take Tequila shots and then ask an estranged friend why he never talks to you. People may think Tequila lessens emotional pain. It does not.

Don’t take Tequila shots and then speak French. Unless you’re me. Then you’re French somehow gets better.

Don’t take Tequila shots before running into Sapna’s French roommate. It will only give him fuel to continue calling you a “veree strange geerl”.

Don’t take Tequila shots on Sapna’s birthday. Ever.

Chanukah Chavoc

So apparently I wreaked havoc in my school last Thursday because I talked about Chanukah in my classes.

First of all, when I talked about Chanukah in one of my first and youngest classes, one of the cutest little girls raised her hand and told me that she was Jewish and that her brother had a piece of his penis cut off. She included little hand movements to better illustrate and explain her point. It was adorable, yet slightly horrifying. And then, in another class a couple of boys came up to me and asked me if moyels (circumcisioners…yeah I made this word up) existed in America. Kids and their weird curiosities.

So anyway, about discussing Chanukah, I figured I would be careful, and asked the director of each school I work in and my supervisor if it would be appropriate to talk about Chanukah with my French Fries. They all said it would be fine, as long as I didn’t delve into religion and all that stuff, to which I agreed. So I downloaded a Chanukah Song and I made up a sheet with the words to the song and some pictures they could color of a dreidel, a menorah, presents, candles, and chocolate money. But, during my third class in my first school, the director walks in really quickly and tells the children to not glue the sheet into their notebooks. Then she tells me that what I am teaching is way too religious. She said the Menorah is equivalent to the cross, which is not true. The menorah is equivalent to the Christmas Tree (in front of which we were having this discussion). Then she told me my song was way too religious, but she can’t speak English, so she couldn’t even know what the song meant. But then she told me that she understands, because she, too, is a Jew, but she celebrates Christmas for her children. Which, in my rationality, isn’t really a Jewish holiday.

But it was all good, because in the second school I ran it by the director again to make sure it was ok with him, and the teachers and students were very receptive and thanked me for teaching them new information. So take that other school!

So, I’m thinking this is all I have to offer to you for now. Only one more class tomorrow until my holiday break which means Megan is coming in a week, which means we are going to Switzerland soon. I am missing you all, especially with the holiday season here in Nice, which equates to roommate Xmas tunes, too many people on the streets, and heightened cravings for chocolate and romance.

I do hope you are all doing well, and staying sane. Keep sending the e-mails…I LOVE receiving them! And if I don’t get to write another e-mail before Christmas, I wish you all a very Merry Xmas. Be safe, stay warm, and eat lots of food. Especially stuffing. Mmmm.

And just in (super) case, HAPPY NEW YEAR’S!! Come join me and Megan in Monaco, if you dare.

XOXOX,
Dina

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Hello everybody! I hope everyone is doing well, and getting ready for the holidays. I miss the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Here it’s definitely more crowded, and places are actually open on Sunday, but it’s still not the same. However, there is a sweet little Christmas Market in downtown Nice. They set up a skating rink and a ferris wheel, and there are a bunch of different little covered kiosks with vendors selling all sorts of things as well as games and stuff for the kiddies. It looks pretty lively and it definitely jazzes up the normally ugly and construction-filled landscape.

The weather here is also getting temperamental. Last night may have been the coldest I have been in Nice. But yesterday during the day I had to take off my jacket while walking around cause I was so hot. It’s sort of nuts, in fact.

So I just saw another cockroach. In my room. Which is going to make it sort of rough going to sleep tonight. So now instead of just ruining my eating experience by imagining cockroaches laying eggs inside every box of cereal I own, I now have to picture them crawling all over my face in the middle of the night. But I couldn’t even take it out on said cockroach. Although I did yell at it and called it stupid when I tried to trap it to put it outside. I hate this not being able to kill bugs thing I am infected with.

Speaking of infections….I visited my first doctor here in Nice. I have been feeling sort of crappy for about a month now, and I figured at this point I probably needed antibiotics since I tried all other over the counter options already. She was really pleasant, and it was pretty much the same thing as I’m used to, except she actually spent more than 3 minutes with me, and she only charged me 20 euros. But she gave me a prescription (which is actually just a piece of paper with her name on it and the meds I need) for an antibiotic as well as an herbal supplement with Echinacea in it. It is the most vile thing in the world. The pharmacy had to prepare it for me (and it cost a whopping 60 euros!) but it is this brown and thick goo, and it tastes like what I would imagine liquefied tree bark would taste like. But, on the flip side, I am already feeling better.

There are a couple stories I have been meaning to send you. So here goes.

The Market Misidentification
So I was in the local grocery store here picking up a few things, namely chicken for dinner, and so I was in the cold food aisle with a basket in hand. Next thing I know, this guy comes up to me and mumbles something about the chicken, and then he takes cheese that he had in his hand and he throws it into my basket. So, here I am, realllly confused and unsure what to say or do. I thought he was being too lazy to put it back or something and wanted me to. Frankly, I had no idea. But then he looks at me again, and this time a really confused look appears on his face. And then he goes “Oh, you’re not my wife!” and then he embarrassedly removed his cheese and proceeded to move by his wife’s side, who was now also looking suspiciously at me.

He did mumble an apology before leaving, but I think I made him feel worse about the situation because I could not hold back my laughter. And there was a lot of laughter to get out of my system. So somehow I then became the weird one looking at chicken and laughing loudly to myself. Oh well.

The School Stories
There are just two stories I can think of from work that I wanted to mention. One was about my phone number. So we were doing numbers, and I thought a good exercise would be to do a number dictation with them, where I just tell them a number and then they write it down. But then I thought it would be cooler to make it more ‘real world’ relatable, so I told them my phone number as practice. But the French Fries thought that it was the most classified information in the world that I was offering to them. They got super excited and scrambled to write it down, and then a handful of them proceeded to write down their phone numbers and give it to me. But they really expected me to call them! I was settling down for lunch after one of the classes and they saw me, so a couple of my students were like “Are you going to call us tonight?” What do you say to that? I went with the safe “maybe.” It was weirdly cute, and weirdly freaktastic at the same time.

Then the other day I started teaching them clothing. And so I packed a backpack with some of my clothing, and told them I was going on a camping trip and let’s look at what I brought. So I pulled out my shoes, which was funny for them for whatever reason, and then my socks, which were hilarious for them. But then in one class I pulled out a skirt that has a little belt attached to it. And then they were looking at it stupefied asking me what it was. And then one of the boys yelled out “Isn’t that what you wear to do cooking in?” So to them skirt equates cooking. HAHA. It doesn’t get more chauvinistic than that, huh? But I found this extremely funny for some reason, and could not stop laughing. Their normal teacher then started laughing because I was laughing, and then that got the French Fries laughing, too. So my classroom turned into a mess of laughter. So at that point my lesson was shot to hell, but I think it was worthwhile.

Those are the only stories I can think of right now. Just winding down over here, getting ready for my holiday vacation. Their vacation here starts on the 23rd and doesn’t end until the 8th of January. The kids here never seem to go to school it appears. And then they have a Mardi Gras break from February to March.  I’m looking forward to that one!

Anyway, that’s all I got for now. I am getting tired. I think that Echinacea goop is getting to my head. I hope you are all doing well!! I miss you all so very much! And by the way, I now have internet at my apartment, which doesn’t work so well right now, but hopefully the situation will be rectified and then I can bless you all with more e-mails. Woohoo!

Miss you!!
XOXOX
Dina

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ‘OLD MAN’ DREW!!!!!

A lamer update. I apologize.

Hello there everyone. I think it's time for a new e-mail. And I had so much to write in here, but at present I can't really think of anything that I wanted to say.

I did want to talk about my first apartment cockroach I spotted the other day. Of course it had to make a statement by crawling around and being spotted chilling by all our dishes in the kitchen. Nothing more wonderful than imagining cockroach pooplets all over your plates everytime you eat. But it looked the same as an American cockroach, I am pleased to announce, just with smaller bone structure, and it was wearing a beret and smoking a cigarette. And unfortunately, I have the "I can't kill a bug" disorder, cause I feel both guilty and scared of karma, and that sucker was quick...so I never actually captured said cockroach. However, I haven't seen him or another one since, so I am just pretending now that we don't have a cockroach problem.

There are some cute work stories I can insert here now. I have been demoted in my students' minds from teacher to compadre. In French there are two different forms of 'You'. There is a formal one, which you use with friends and family, and then there is a formal one, which you use with strangers, older people, and figures of higher authority. So first, my kids decide it's cool to start using the informal you with me, and online started telling me their boy problems and stuff (how interesting that they should know I could relate to them, huh?). But next thing I know, my students are coming up to me and giving me the double cheek kisses, reserved for friends that you have known for awhile, and such. It's really cute though.

I also ran into some students walking home from downtown yesterday. It took me awhile to realize who they were, and they were with their mothers. So they stopped and said 'hi', and their mothers were looking at me suspiciously, and they finally ask their kids "and this is who?" and then I awkwardly say the English teacher, and then walk off quickly. But Sapna tells me that she sees her highschool students out a lot here, and they tell her they saw her at the bar last night, or other places like that. So I think my awkward moments are still the better end of this deal.

What else? I really can't think of anything. So I will insert my Conversation of the day now...

This is referring back to the rehashing bad tales of 6th grade love.

student says:
tu sais j'ai un amoureux:-* (you know I am in love :-*)
Dina says:
avec qui (with whom?)
student says:
non mais en fait je l'aim mais lui non : yohan (no, but in fact I like him but him no. Yohan)
Dina says:
ah d'accord (ah, ok)
Dina says:
c'est la vie (that's life)
Dina says:
je le sais bien (I know it well)
student says:
ouais mais bon il a dit pleins de trucs méchants sur my !! yes, but he said lots of mean things about me)
Dina says:
oh c'est pas vrai! (it's not true!)
student says:
si ! ma copine lui a demandé si il m'aimait et il a dit non car il me trouve trop moche !! (but yes! my friend asked him if he liked me and he said no because he finds me to ugly!!)
Dina says:
oh, c'est parce qu'il est un homme et jeune. Meme s'il t'aime, il dirait ca! (oh, it's because he is a young man. Even if he likes you, he would say that!)
student says:
il est trop ... méchant !!!!!!!!!!!!! (he is too...mean!!!!!)
Dina says:
c'est les garcons pour toi! (that's boys for you!)
Dina says:
c'est tres different avec les garcons comme tu deviens plus agée. N'inquietes pas! (It's very different with boys when you become older. Don't worry! I LIED HERE TO MAKE HER FEEL BETTER. SHE SHOULD BE WORRYING!!! :p)
student says:
merci (thank you)

So, that's all I think I have for you today. I do have some Thanksgiving pictures to offer you though. And I also have some vain pictures to show you, which I took last night, because I liked my hair. Yes, because I liked my hair. I said it.

I hope you all have an excellent weekend, and I hope the weather is a little less crappy wherever you are than it is here.

*cough, cough*

I miss you all very much!! MUAH!!! XOXOX

Dina

It's a loverly warm and sunny Sunday in Nice

Hey Everyone! I hope you are all doing well, and I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and an even better Black Friday. France is so the opposite of that, you would not believe it. The Christmas shops barely see anyone walking in and out of them, and the other stores (even the mall) appear to have the same volume of people in them as well. Although I have to say the grocery stores are crazy packed here. But that’s how it always appears to be, I am told.

Since Friday, not too much has happened here. It’s been a rainy weekend until today. Thank goodness it is beautiful outside, because I was very ready to jump out of my 4th floor window if the sun didn’t show itself.

Friday I went downtown to use the internet at Wayne’s, but was sad because they neglected me. I think I am becoming too much of a regular there that they think they can forgo all good service with me and I will still go there like clockwork. So I decided I shouldn’t show my face there for awhile. But guess where I ended up meeting Sapna and Elena on Friday night, merely 5 hours later? Yup, Wayne’s. There was a weird live band playing there, and they did some decent covers [READ: She by Green Day], but they also did some really bad ones [Can’t think of any of the bad ones right now]. And there was this older lady rocking out next to me. Like think soccer mom scantily clad, drinking like a fish, and trying to grab at the singer of the band. So she is wasted like you wouldn’t believe, and I guess she tried breaking out some dance move that was too young for her…and next thing I know, she is clawing at my face and grabbing onto my arm to try not to fall, but I am starting to fall with her, and Sapna is trying to hold me up. Somehow I stayed on my feet, and decided it was time to have an unspoken territorial dance off with Oldie McMom. So Sapna just broke out our moves to whatever horrible song was playing and we won our spot.

And then all of a sudden I see the singer pointing to me between songs. And then he says over the mic “I’d like to introduce you all to Kate from Lost. She’s in the house right here.” And then I just laugh. And he continues “Kate, don’t let Jack be mean to you!”. So I just laughed and said I actually get that a lot. Sort of weird, sort of flattering. I still don’t see it though, but I think that brings my overall count to 18 or 19 times that I got that one. Never over a mic to a crowded bar, though. That’s a first.

After the band came laptop DJ. I kept making the guy standing next to me angry because he was right next to me and I kept implementing my arms in my dancing, and in doing so, kept jabbing him. But he was just standing there on the tables not dancing (and they are for dancing!), so I justified it that if he were dancing, he would be moving to much to be met in the face with my elbow. But he left soon after, so Sapna and I just danced the night away without a care. And it was a gooood time.

That brings me to Saturday. It was again rainy and dull, so I just sort of slept in and watched shows on my laptop. And ate. Boy did I eat. Then Alix and I took a trip to McDonald’s for internet. That place dulls in comparison to downtown for internet. And here is the deal in France. Lots of younger people here have MP3 players…some like IPods and some on their phones. And the ones with players on their phones like to play their music at loud volumes, but without headphones. So, in short, they are imposing their music on you on the bus, on trains, and always at McDonald’s. Downtown is too classy for that ;).

Then after McDonald’s I did some grocery shopping and I came home ready to cook myself rice with Chicken, mushrooms, and curry sauce. I am trying out this whole cooking thing, and starting small. But at one point I was reusing the pot that I used to heat up the mushrooms to heat up the sauce. So there were a couple tiny pieces of mushrooms still on the bottom of the pot, but some crazy reaction happened when I poured the sauce in the pot. Before I knew it, a piece of mushroom was flying full force out of the pot and landed on my hand. I was attacked by a rabid mushroom. I think that was an external force telling me that the flying mushroom was a sign that I should quit cooking while I am ahead.

After dinner, I took my exhausted bum to bed, watched a couple episodes of Reno 911 and actually fell asleep mad early. And now it’s a beautiful day, and you better believe I am downtown using the internet. AND I miss you all, and I miss the hustle and bustle of the holidays in the good ol’ US. Keep me informed about how it is .

It’s that time again for some By the Numbers:

2 days that the leftover stuffing lasted. It was delicious.

4 hot chocolates I had in the last week. I think I am obsessed with that stuff, and if anyone wants to send me American Hot Chocolate Mix, feel free.

1 shout out I got from the band on stage. “We’d like to welcome Kate from Lost” is what they actually said.

3 times my Irish friend made fun of me for using the term “potty mouth” in one night.

3 amazing new episodes of Desperate Housewives I watched Friday night.

5 times I entered Wayne’s this week. (It’s a bar with free WiFi during the day, and awesome Dancing during the night).

9 o’clock I went to sleep yesterday. I was that dork on a Saturday night.

4 days it rained in a row here. So much for the 200 or so average days of sunshine Nice is supposed to have.

7 episodes of Reno 911, Season 4, Drew sent me to fall in love with that show all over again.

13 times my ‘randomizer’ on Windows Media Player started with Come on Eileen.

1 time the guy in McDonald’s told us that we had to eat something to use their WiFi.
0 things we decided to consume after he told us that.
0 times he reinforced his rule. Sucka.


And now for the Conversations of the Day:

This student was very motivated to speak English with me, which was awesome, but it resulted in some randomness. He knew damn well what time it was…he just wanted to say it in English ;).

Student says:
hello
Dina says:
hey
Student says:
my name is joris
Dina says:
hello Joris
Student says:
how are you?
Dina says:
good thanks. How are you?
Student says:
y im happy
Dina says:
good
Student says:
i see you tomorow?
Dina says:
yes
Dina says:
ton anglais est tres bon! bravo! (Your English is very good !)
Student says:
what time is it?
Dina says:
5:53
Student says:
2 minute plaes
Dina says:
sure
Student says:
no
Student says:
good by
Dina says:
goodbye
Student says:
good bye!!

----------------------
And now to counteract the last e-mail with the student that told me I have to continue my French studies, I thought this was a good ego booster, and thus had to share with you…

Student says:
hello
Dina says:
hello
Student says :
la dernier fois tu a BIEN parler en francais (the last time you spoke in French WELL)
Dina says:
oh merci! (oh thank you!)
Dina says:
en classe? (in class ?)
student says :
yes
Dina says:
tu aimes le lecon de THanksgiving? (You like the Thanksgiving lesson ?)
Student says:
oui
Student says:
c'etait trop BIEN (It was very GOOD)
Dina says:
awww Bon!! J'aime le chanson de la dinde (awwww Good !! I like the song about the Turkey)
Student says :
tu as BIEN EXEPLIQUER (You EXPLAINED WELL)

[NOTE : I learned I lied to them about some of the facts, too. Apparently it’s not the third Thursday of November…]

Student says:
moi aussi c'est marant (me too it’s funny)


I wish I could send you a video of me and the French Fries doing the Turkey Gobble Song. It was really funny. But that’s all I’ve got for you! Keep sending your e-mails! I really love receiving them!

I miss you all very much!
XOXO
Dina

I'm Thankful For Seeing Black Friday

Hey everyone! Just giving you a quick update today....the good news is I did make stuffing, and I did eat the stuffing, and I am still alive to write about the stuffing. Surprisingly, it was quite tasty. It turned out that our dinner just became me and Alix, and Sapna and Elena. So 3 Americans and 1 Russian. How's that for PC? But it was a really good time...nice and low key, and with people that liked to make fun of everyone else. Good times. Alix also made a cheesecake that was absolutely amazing! I may have to hire her to make my wedding cake one day in the not near future.

Teaching the French Fries about Thanksgiving proved to be a little bit difficult, though. They didn't really get the concept or my drawings. I drew England and America with an arrow and a boat to explain the voyage of the pilgrims, and they were like "OHHHH. So Thanksgiving is like a Grand Prix?" And then when I tried to further explain it, they were like "So it's a holiday for vegetables." I just agreed. But one thing I would not back down on was my turkey being called a chicken. Wasn't gonna stand for that, because my depiction of a turkey was actually quite fantastic!

So that was Thanksgiving in France. It was fun and now there is a smoother transition in my mind between Halloween and the Holidays. So Yay!

Anyway, bon week-end! I'll send you a better update when I accomplish more to write about!

Missing you all!


XOXO
Dina

Addendum: Thanksgiving Horror!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I got laughed at by so many teachers yesterday because I thought it would be a good lesson to sing the turkey gobble song and do a turkey dance along with it. You should try it sometime! Little kids love it after the initial fright they feel after watching a grown woman waddle!

A Blog to Be Thankful For...

Hve Hello again everyone! I hope you are all doing splendiferous! For those of you in NJ, my mom has told me that I cursed the good weather there by complaining about it in my last e-mail, so for that I apologize. And do an evil laugh.

So, I since the novelty of conversing with my students via MSN Messenger hasn’t lessened for me, I decided I am going to share some more…interesting conversations. Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, ok NOW…

This is, by far, my favorite conversation I have had so far…


student says:
hello dina
Dina says:
hello
student says:
how do you do
Dina says:
good! and you?
student says:
yes !!
student says:
y love you Dina bisous (kisses)
student says:
lol
student says:
!!!
Dina says:
hehe awwww
student says:
tu CONNAIS la comédie musicale high school musical ?? (You KNOW the musical comedy High School Musical??)
Dina says:
c'est un film ici? aux etats-unis c'est une emission (It’s a film here ? In the US it’s a show)
student says:
tu voudras que je te le prete ?? (You want to borrow it)
student says:
tu va voir il y a un acteur trop mignon (You are going to see a very cute actor)
Dina says:
il est trop jeune pour moi? (He is too young for me ?...NOTE: SHE SAID NO, HE WAS 16)

………

student says:
dina je peux te poser des questions ?? (Dina can I ask you some questions ?)
Dina says:
Oui (Yes)
student says:
tu es nee quand ? (You were born when ?)
Dina says:
le 20 mars 1984
student says:
alors tu es poisson ?? (You are a pisces ?)
Dina says:
Oui (yes)
student says:
ok
student says:
ton nom de famille (Your last name )
student says:
??
student says:
silteplait ?? (please??)
Dina says:
Berkovits

(NOTE: THIS IS WHEN IT TAKES A TURN FOR CREEPY)

student says:
dina j'ai un carnet avec des question pour mes amies ..... sa te dERANGE pas si je te pose des questions comme : ton adresse ton prtable ?? (Dina, I have a little book with questions for m y friends....would it bother you if I ask questions like your address and cell phone number ?)
student says:
??
student says:
yes ou no ??
Dina says:
oui, d'accord, mais malheureusement c'est pas possible maintenant, parce que je doit rentrer chez moi, mais le prochaine fois quand nous sommes ensemble a MSN? (yeah, ok, but unfortunately not now because I have to go home, but next time when we are together on MSN ?)
student says:
ok pour jeudi tu pourrai me DONNER UNE PHOTO DE TOI et moi je te DONNE le flim jeudi ok ?? POUR LA PHOTO (ok, for Thursday you will be able to bring me A PHOTO OF YOU et I will GIVE you the film Thursday ok?? FOR THE PHOTO)
Dina says:
hehe
Dina says:
j'ai pas un photo (I don’t have a photo)
Dina says:
bonne nuit!
student says:
a jeudi ou a demain bisous ma prof préférer (See you Thursday or tomorrow kisses my favorite teacher)
Dina says:
aww
Dina says:
c;est très gentille! (that’s very nice !)

AND THEN, she changes her display name from her name to Vive Dina…so it reads Vive Dina says: Good night. Thus, I have my first stalker, in the size of a pint-sized teeny-bopper French Fry. Don’t be alarmed if one of you gets a phone call from her, I do not intend on giving her my phone number.

I also received an e-mail this week from a student, and it started out so sweetly and unassuming. She started writing how she loves English and has been studying it for 4 years now, and that she hopes to continue her studies upon going to high school and maybe at University. BUT THEN, she goes, “and I hope you also continue your studies of French when you return home, because you speak with too much of an American accent.”

On the one hand I admired her audacity, and on the other hand I hated it. Haha. So, the next day in class one of my students batted her eyes at me and was like “did you get my e-mail?” and I said yes, I did, and I wanted to make sure it was her, so she pridefully told me her name, indeed, the little goody-two-shoes know-it-all-but-who-makes-lots-of-mistakes was the one who tried to put me in my place. Kids say the darndest things, huh (insert face with rolling eyes here).

Other than these, nothing exciting happened this week so far. That’s a common trend, I guess, these days. Nice is becoming depressing and emptying out. We went downtown the last three nights in a row, and it was DEAD. The bars that are usually disgustingly packed with people and smoke, are now just packed with, well, smoke. But not as many people. But on the one hand it gives Sapna an advantage of having the whole dance floor to ourselves wherever we go.

It was actually great because the other night we went to this bar called Ma Nolan’s and there was this awesome band that is there often. They have a really mellow sound, and they do covers, but in their mellow swanky-esque fashion. I asked if they could play “Sweet Home Alabama” and the singer/guitar player was like “I don’t know that one”, and then he just strums a couple chords to see if they could work, and it was PERFECT, and then he sings all the words. So his not knowing it was pretty impressive, since he seemed to know it really well.

It was also great because laptop DJ came on (which is Sapna’s new term, because there are few DJ’s in Nice, there are just laptops set to randomize), and Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love” came on, so Sapna and I started rocking out to that song but they stopped it for the band. However, the astute singer noticed that we were really into the song, so he and the band finished singing it for us, mellow style. It was pretty neat-o.

And the other weird story from the last couple nights is that I went to the bathroom last night at a bar called Thor’s. It was ladies’ night there so for 3 euros, chicks can get all the wine they fancy. So last night in the bathroom there were these two girls that obviously fancied a lot of wine. But when I walked in I felt like I was being interrogated. They kept asking me all these questions, but then they asked me what my name was. And when I told them it was Dina, they were like “Ah oui, Dina. Eet eez comme zis. Rrrrrrr” and they did the whole lion claw miming thing with their hand. I guess they like the name Dina. Haha. So that was weird, and I was quite relieved when a stall became available soon after.

So that’s about it. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so Alix and I are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at our apartment for some of the other American Assistants. This should be interesting, given a few factors. One is that our apartment is tiny and we are going to have like 8 people here. Another factor is I am going to be cooking. In that respect, I think the real Thanksgiving for our guests will be the day after, Friday, if they live to see it. But it’ll be nice, nevertheless, because I was a little bummed at the idea of just surpassing Thanksgiving. And that reminds me….10 points to whomever can tell me when Chanukah is this year (Mom, I’m counting on you here.)

I’ll be sure to take pictures at our Thanksgiving, so you can see what a ghetto Thanksgiving looks like. You all have a wonderful and safe, and incredibly gluttonous Turkey Day! And friends, you better be rocking out tonight, on the most popular night for going out of the year!

I miss you all very much!!

XOXO,
Dina

P.S. DANIELLE, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! I’M SORRY THIS WISH IS SO LATE, BUT I’M A LITTLE FLAKY, OK?!

My Fascinating French Fries...

Hello everyone! Again, it’s been awhile since my last e-mail. I hope this e-mail finds you all well and in good spirits. Especially those of you in Jersey, where I hear the weather is more beautiful than it is here along the Mediterranean. What gives?

Nothing too exciting has happened since the last e-mail. I just had a day of teaching, which proved to be a pretty good day. I decided to give them a quiz-like thing, but not for the purpose of grading. It was more for the purpose of seeing what I needed to continue reviewing, and what they really weren’t getting. But it was funny, because the poor French Fries were petrified about the prospect of the quiz (even though the week before they were begging me for one, which I thought was the weirdest thing in the world). But anyway, it took forever for them to simply understand the concept of the ‘quiz’, and then it took an even longer time to make them understand what they were supposed to do with them (who thought matching could be so friggin’ complicated?!). But upon reviewing most of the papers, I can clearly discern that my teaching is completely subpar, because they don’t even know their numbers . But they all seemed to do really well with colors, which was sort of weird.

But anyway, along with the quiz, I started teaching shapes. And to make it a little more entertaining for them, I made up a sort of Tangram sheet, where they had to color the different shapes certain colors, and then cut them out and then make anything with the shapes. Anything their imagination could afford them. I demonstrated my lame house, but I was sooooo pleased by some of the things they came up with. I took pictures of some of my favorites so you could see them .

So, over the course of the last week I gave all my classes my e-mail address, in case they wanted to ask me questions or wanted to practice their English (and I wanted to be able to practice my French, as well). So that’s when they all recognized the fact that they can use my yahoo name with MSN Messenger, so the next time I signed into MSN, there they were…15 requests for new online contacts. And since then, I have had some gems of conversations. I even included a couple excerpts from them for your entertainment. The first girl always asks me questions about Hollywood and movie stars. It’s so cute, and somehow all conversation comes back to “Desperate Housewives”, which is absolutely fine with me! I thought you should see their cute attempts at English, too.

The second student is one of those that I am going to keep around merely for self confidence resolution.  You’ll get it when you read it.


Student says:
hi
Dina says:
hello
Dina says:
how are you?
•Student says:
hay am happy and you
Dina says:
I am happy! And I am tired. Are you tired?
Dina says:
sleepy?
Student says:
happy and you
Dina says:
I am happy
Dina says:
comme ca
Student says:
yes

-------------

Student says:
hello dina c'est my susan !! (It’s me, Susan!!)
Student says:
har way you ? (how are you)
Student says:
tu connais le restaurent "kfc"? (you know of KFC ?)
Dina says:
bien sur! c'est tres populair en amerique (of course ! it’s very popular in America)
Dina says:
tu l'aimes?' (you like it ?)
Student says:
oui il est très bon je laime trop et le macdonald aussi ! et toi ? (yes, it’s ver good, i like it too much and McDonald’s too ! and you?)
Dina says:
oui! mais j'essaie de n'y manger pas trop! (yes ! but I try not to eat there too much !)
Dina says:
mais je l'aime beaucoup (but I like it a lot)
Student says:
moi des fois jy vais beaucoup de soirs et puis après j'ai plus envie dy aller !! (sometimes I go there a lot of evenings and I still want to go there !!)

-----------

Student says:
Coucou (Knock knock)
Dina says:
:)
Student says:
ca va dina (It’s going, Dina ?)
Dina says:
Oui (yes)
Dina says:
et toi? (and you)
Student says:
OUI (It’s going)
Student says:
TU ES TROP BELLE (You are very pretty)
Student says:
DINA
Dina says:
merci beaucoup!!! (Thank you very much!!)
Student says:
DERIEN (You’re welcome)


So that’s the fun school stuff. Aside from school, things have been pretty quiet for me. I was sort of sick last week, so I didn’t go out too much. However, last night we went to Monaco to celebrate Sapna’s roommate’s (Elena’s) birthday. It was pretty fun, but we were going with a large group, so it just got a little out of hand with trying to get everyone together, and finding something that everyone wanted to do. But I voted Elena got first pick, since it was her birthday. So we went to the same club we went to last time, Karrément. I have some pics for you from last time we went there, and it was pretty much the same, except maybe a little more crowded. It was funny though, because I ran into my Italian acquaintances whom I tried to convince I spoke Italian to. They didn’t believe me this time either, when I pretended to speak Italian. They’re good.

So here’s some more By The Numbers for you.

4 times this week that I was downwind from an old man that decided to offer up some flatulence.
1 old lady sitting next to me who looked at me and cracked up with me on occasion #4

2 times this month that the bus Control boarded my bus to make sure everyone paid for their voyage.
2 people that were kicked off the bus and fined a whole lot of money for not having a pass.

5 students that asked if I had a webcam when I gave them my e-mail address
5 students I lied to and said I didn’t have a webcam.
1 student who kept insisting to the point of asking if I had a phone he could call.
1 gullible student who believed I didn’t have a phone.

4 glasses of apple juice I had at bars in the last 3 days. I’m sort of on a kick.
6 Airborne tablets I took in two days. I may suffer from Vitamin C poisoning.

1 person who made fun of me at Karrément for going all out and rocking to Offspring’s “Self-Esteem”
3 people who started rocking out with me.

5 blisters I have on my feet from my stupid shoes last night.
25 years it looks like my feet have been professionally dancing with the Russian Ballet Company. (They’re pretty horrid).

9 e-mails I received from you guys since the last bloggy e-mail thing. Thank you!! I love receiving them.

50 times a day I realize how much I miss all of you.

1984 is a great year because I was born, but also a really depressing book that I just finished this week here.

38 days until Megan comes!!

Ta-Da!! I am finally finished with this epic e-mail. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and I miss you so very much!!

XOXOX,
Dina

It's been awhile...

Ok, so I know I've been slacking with the updates....I admit. But, I guess not a whole lot has happened since I last wrote awhile back. And really, I can't think of too much to write about now either, but I felt it was necessary to let you all know that I am alive and well (because I know you were all worried sick). I only had a half day of work today, which was quite nice, because it took all my strength to get me out of bed this morning. And I am somehow a part of a mysterious phenomenon, in which I defy the logic of time. Everyday I leave for work a little later than the last, realizing that I always arrive too early there with not enough to do. But yet, somehow I always get to work earlier than the previous time. I seemingly keep the same pace, and I definitely always go the same route. But that's that. Anyway, so I arrived at work this morning, and the classes went well. It was funny because I gave my students my e-mail address, and the first class went nuts over that. They were asking me if they could talk to me online through MSN messenger, and asking me when I was on and everything. I felt like the cool kid in school!

Then the best part of the day was the end. One student asked me where I live. And I said Nice. And, in all seriousness, the little French Fries were blown away by this concept. I think they somehow had the misconception that I lived in the United States and commuted everyday or something. It was hilarious. They were like 'you really live in Nice' and 'what road do you live on' as if they were testing my theory, or something. I think that was definitely the highlight of my short day.

Otherwise, nothing too crazy to report. I'm gonna try something new though. It's a little By The Numbers...

2 times I got pooped on by a bird in the last week.
0 times I played the lottery so far, although something is telling me I should.

5 guys I lied to in the park and told Alix and I were Russian to, so they would stop harrassing me cause I was an American
5 guys who happened to like Russians more than Americans.

8 times I read Dr. Seuss's ABC in one day to the little French Fries.
1 teacher who implied Dr. Seuss's ABC was a ridiculous one.

6 times today one of the kids called me Rachel (last year's English Assistant)

3 times I heard Nirvana being covered in the last week by a French group.

1 e-mail I have received in the last week...you guys are slacking!

So that's By The Numbers for you. I hope you enjoyed. It's getting dark here though, so I am going to get going. Hope you are all well, and I miss you very much!!

Weekend Addendum: Loco in Monaco

So, I somehow motivated myself to go out again last night, despite being ridiculous amounts of tired. But Sapna and her roommate were going to Monaco, and I felt like I couldn't pass up a trip like that. So we boarded the 11 o'clock night train to Monaco, and a half hour later we were there. So Friday in Rich Man's Cannes, and then Saturday in Anti-Po' Monaco. Ok, I'll stop with the witty rhymes.

Anyway, once we got there, it was an adventure in and of itself to try to find the exit of the ginormous train station. It was pretty cool though, cause the elevators were all fancy and automatic. That's when we could tell we weren't in France anymore. So we finally found the way out, and off we headed in the direction of the water. That's a common theme here. Just head waterward.

We passed the Monte Carlo, and took some pictures, and kept walking until we saw what appeared to be a cheap bar. Sapna and I know to look for Irish Pub type places. It's usually a cheap and good time. So we went in, and the music was very weird. There was this Jamaican guy with dreads playing a groovy rendition of "Tainted Love". But the drinks were cheap so we got a couple wines. And then came the groovy rendition of Nirvana's "Rape Me". That's the point where we knew we either had to drink more, or leave. So we opted for the further. Sorry, mom. You have to learn about the depths of my drinking sooner or later. But I think you know by now anyway :). Anyway, after chatting up some pretty awesome people all around, and taking too many pictures. And after realizing it was already 2:30, we decided it was time to move on. So, off we headed to this club that Sapna knew about. It was HUGE. And very clubbish. I prefer bars over clubs, but it proved to be a fun time. I met a bunch of other people. And I pretended to speak Italian to a bunch of Italian people...which obviously doesn't work. But, all in all I had a really good time.

So at about 6 AM the club closed and we headed back to the station. We were anticipating the 6:45 train, but as it pulled up and we went to get on, it just drove off. It was a little annoying, a little weird, but a whole lot of hilarious a couple minutes later. I actually then fell asleep waiting for the next train, at which I woke with a start when Sapna yelled for me to get the next train. But again. This train didn't even pretend to stop. We ran, but it ran faster. So FINALLY, at about 7:45 we got on a train that decided to let us on. It was a rough ride, being so tired, and seeing the sun come up. But we got home, I took the longest walk back of my life, and crashed into my bed.

Now, I am a little comotose, but happy that I decided to go to Monaco. It was an excellent time, and I plan to do it again ;).

So that's all I've got folks. Hope you had a great weekend!

Miss you all!

XOXOX
Dina

It's a really long one!!

This is going to be an epic blog, since it includes Halloween and a little bit of travels. So brace yourselves, it’s going to be a long ride.

Tuesday was Halloween, as you know. But apparently, Halloween is not so important here as it is in the States. So Sapna and I decided we would dress up and we opted for the typical Devil/Angel theme, me being the Devil because I don’t like wearing white. Uh huh. Anyway, Sapna and I ventured out to find outfits that we could wear again after Halloween, so we both went for the skirt and top combination. That was the easy part. But then we needed horns, halo, and the like. That was next to impossible. We searched far and wide, only to find that stores carry about two costumes a piece. There was always the obligatory witch hat next to the ‘scary’ plastic mask. So, on the tip of an employee of one of these Halloween-unfriendly stores, we found out there was a store called “Halloween” on some street that we never heard of. Nevertheless, we took this mission on, and wouldn’t rest until we had exactly what we needed. So, to make a long story short, hours later, and after asking more people in the streets than not, we finally found someone who pointed us into the right direction. And when we arrived, we had clearly found the Halloween Mecca of Nice. It almost put Party City to shame. So, with horns, pitch fork, halo, wings, and glitter in hand, we made our way back home with smiles on our faces.

The next night, on Halloween, we headed to Old Nice to get our party on. Little did we know, nor anticipate, that also unlike the States, not too many people get dressed up for Halloween. And to them, dressed up also entails street clothes with fake blood splattered across their faces. So as we were walking to the bars, we literally got laughed at. People didn’t even try to hide their amusement at our confident incognito selves, heading out for Halloween Festivities. However, later on our costumes would prove to be valuable because it got us into places with long lines, and helped us cut ahead for some drinks, too. So we got the last laugh suckas. So that’s Halloween in France in a nutshell. It could be summed up in one word: lame.

So, on Thursday Sapna and I took a day trip to Antibes, a little city near Nice, still on the coast touching the Mediterranean. It was such a good time. We left the station at Nice at about 12:45, and arrived in Antibes maybe a half hour later. The train ride was rather funny, and choc full of feeling like a tourist. First we got our tickets and wanted to go to our train, but couldn’t figure out how to get to the train. So we had to pass through this little area, but we had to validate our tickets. So the both of us were inserting our tickets every which way, just standing there trying to figure it out. So we finally discovered the proper way (which was disgustingly simple), and we then try to go to the platform at which the train was waiting, but we couldn’t figure out how to get there either. We were going into exits facing masses of people rushing towards us, then we ended up in this area that led to nowhere, but finally we took a right turn and made it onto the train. It’s a nice train, pretty clean and pleasant, but packed a little tight. So at the end of the ride we get up to wait by the door to get off at our stop, and we are standing waiting at the wrong door. Then we went to the right door, and when the train stopped we were waiting for the doors to open. But alas, no doors were opening. Then we hear this older woman next to us heave a big sigh, step in front of us, and then pull the doors apart. Us lazy Americans want our automatic doors, ok lady?!

When we arrived in Antibes we made our way out to the only Museum that held interest to us, a museum of Peynet (who I, nor Sapna, had ever heard of before), but we were up for a nice art museum. Unfortunately, the Picasso Museum is being renovated and won’t be open until 2007. But anyway, we got to the museum, but it was closed for lunch hours, so we just walked around Antibes for a little while, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The streets were narrow and the architecture was so old worldly. I felt like I was in Italy (which I have never been to before, but would imagine would look similar). All the buildings were overlooking the Mediterranean, too, which just added to the amazingness of the whole place. It was just truly incredible, and a breath of fresh air (both figuratively and literally). After taking oodles of pictures, Sapna and I made our way back to the museum, which was also quite amazing. Regardless of which painter was highlighted within, the Museum itself was set up really well, being both quaint, and beautifully spaced out. The artist, Peynet, was very good, though, which was like icing on the cake. He does illustrations portraying all sorts of love, and includes humorous quips with his paintings. It’s definitely a change from the art that exemplifies the pain and suffering that was displayed at the Musee des Beaux Arts. It was interesting though, because aside from Peynet, there was also a section devoted to Political Cartoons, so on one side there were the light, fluffy amorous paintings coupled with the satirical and dark humor on the opposite side.

After the museum, Sapna and I walked a little more and decided to stop for lunch. We went to an unassuming little restaurant with a patio, so we could stare at people walking while they stared at us eating. It was delicious though, and I had my first French omelet. Yummy. We then left, and headed back to Nice, and took the rest of the night off in anticipation of our trip to Cannes the following day.

Enter Cannes. After a 45 minute train ride, we arrived in Cannes at about 2. Before heading out I was reading a guidebook which included Cannes, but spoke of it in a very unfavorable light. They said, short of the Cannes Film Festival, there is nothing there to do. And they were sort of right. Sapna and I checked into our hotel and just walked around alongside the sea. The view was pretty spectacular, but nothing too different from every other Mediterranean-based city. We then decided to go to a Museum, called the Museum de la Castre, which entailed us walking across the city and climbing a steep mountain (which is sort of tough for this girl), and when we finally found the museum atop the mountain, we were informed that they were about to close. Doh! So we took some pictures and went back down (which is way cooler than going up, I must say). We then got an early dinner at a well-priced restaurant (which was extremely difficult to find in rich man’s Cannes). We then decided to just chill in the hotel room for a couple hours before we went out for the night. Luckily for us, there was a gripping movie about this police officer that killed some woman. I understood like 1/3 of it, and made up the rest the way I would have wanted things to happen. I’m good like that.

At about 10:30 we headed out anticipating an awesome night on the town, hearing really good things previously about the nightlife in Cannes. We were a little disappointed to realize that we were the only people walking the streets at that point, which was shocking considering it was a Friday night. But we persevered and went to an Irish bar where we spent an arm and a leg for some tequila and then continued further. We checked out a couple of the other places we read about, but they were completely empty, so we headed to the Port, where we heard about this club called Bâoli, which was supposed to be ritzy and the place where anyone who’s anyone is seen when they visit Cannes. I was personally hoping to run into Johnny Depp, but the only thing we ran into was a HUGE bill for 2 glasses of Champagne. When we arrived, they asked us if we were there for drinks or dinner, and we stated just drinks, where they walked us into this unbelievably elegant lounge area where the tables were all silver, and were against couches with leather pillows adorning the silken upholstery. It was so chic and swanky. But when they brought us the menu, I wish I could have gotten a picture of my face when I saw the prices of the drinks. But Sapna and I decided that we were in France only once, and we wanted to feel what it’s like to be upperclass for the next half hour, so we splurged and got some rosé Champagne. Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford to stay there, but we vowed to come back and sneak in later when they opened up the dance floor.

In the meantime, we had some cheap drinking to do. So we found this bar that advertised 10 shots for 15 euro, which was uncanny to us, seeing as to how the other places here charged 15 euros for one drink. So we walked in, only to realize it was Karaoke Night. We just smiled and nodded to each other, found our place and asked for our 10 shots of Tequila, s’il vous plait. When it arrived, it was the coolest thing I had seen in a long time. It was a huge tray with tequila covering it, and iced with a salt shaker and a lemon for each shot. So as the shots started disappearing, Sapna and decided it was time to take our Karaokeing skills to a new country. We picked one of the few American songs they had (“La Isla Bonita” by Madonna), took the rest of our shots, and performed as if we were performing a concert at Madison Square Garden, complete with choreography and everything. We were impressed, but as the song came to a close, we realized nobody else was. In this packed bar, we got not one single applause (and, yes, everyone else received hearty applause before us). So we handed the DJ our mics, grabbed our jackets, and stealthily made our way to the doors. And back to Bâoli we went.

After another LONG walk, we finally got there, but there was a line. But Justin Timberlake started playing, and Sapna dances anywhere and anytime, so she breaks out dancing in the line, at which the bouncer looks at her disapprovingly, so she just apologizes. But then he asked us how many we had in our party, to which we replied it was just us, and he let us cut the line and go in. So Sapna’s dancing got us special treatment. And we were pleasantly surprised to see there was no cover charge, and no drink minimum, so from midnight to 4 AM we got our dance on, and had a really great time. I was a little surprised when Kris Kross’s “Jump” blasted over the sound system, but until last night, I never appreciated the dance value of that song. So put it on your dance mixes, folks, even if it’s a one hit wonder from the 90’s sung by 10 year olds. Trust me.

After walking for what seemed forever, we were back to our hotel where we just crashed, until about 9, at which time we were awoken by the loudest hotel cleaning ladies you have ever heard in your life. So we snoozed our alarms from that point on for the next hour, and then headed out back to Nice. There was this hilariously hyper and ADD little boy on our train. He was sooo nuts, but really cute. At one point he ran in front of this old couple and jumped right in front of them and yelled ‘Cou Cou!’. We started cracking up, but the old couple were not digging it, so they ignored it. Little boy wasn’t digging being ignored so he kept getting more and more in their faces and yelling even louder. The old man got really pissed and said some rude comment to the little boy, which just made everything ten times better to watch, cause the little boy wasn’t miffed at all. He just kept at it, until he got bored, and just left them with their disgusted looks on their face. It doesn’t pay to be a disgruntled elderly couple these days. You still won’t get left alone by Ritalin-deprived 4 year olds.

Ok, so that’s all I’ve got. I’m sorry this one was so long. But when the muse calls, you better answer. So this is my answering in the form of a novella. But you can’t deny the fact that you love these . Anyway, I will leave you alone now, but not without including some pictures first.

I miss you all so much!
XOXOX
Dina

Include sexy rocks, quai des pecheurs, peynet, in front of fnts, Atop mtn, Obligatory water shot, all 3 at waynes.

Halloween Spirit!

Hello Everyone! I hope you are all doing well on this fine Halloween afternoon…well morning for you. It’s actually not that fine here, either. It’s realllly cloudy and a little windy, but it’s ok nevertheless. And that’s because I am sitting on the beach as I am writing this to you. As are lots of other people, and I am guessing it’s because of the national holiday tomorrow (All Saint’s Day), which I am guessing brings people to Nice for their day off.

But anyway, I am sure I had hundreds of stories to tell you since the last e-mail, but frankly, I can remember not-a-one. So let me start with the formalities. There is no school for me, because I am on vacation until the 4th of November. So I have no school stories for you. Except one that I neglected to mention in the previous e-mail (I think). So, I think I told you all that I bought the little French Fries candy to commemorate Halloween, since that was the focus of my lesson. But before I would give them the candy, each student had to say “Trick-or-Treat”, which I am sure they had no idea what it meant. But anyway, they had to say that to get the candy from me. And it was so damn cute!! They could NOT get it. Most of them would say “Trick-or-Treak”. It gave me a good laugh (which I always feel badly about when I am in their presence and laughing). But they know I am laughing with them!

So that was my classroom story. OH! And the other night I was using the free internet at McDonald’s, and I look over and I see this girl whispering something to her mom and she is pointing at me. But when I really looked, I recognized her as one of my students. So she was eating at McDonald’s pretty much sitting across from me, and staring at me while I used the computer. So I waved to her, and she just said “Heylo” and then quickly looked away. And then I said goodbye to her as I was leaving, but her mom was staring at me a little too much while I was talking to her daughter, so I figured that was my cue to leave. So I did.

So what else? The last few days has been a mission for me and Sapna to get our Halloween costumes. We decided to go with the devil/angel theme. I opted for Devil, since I hate wearing white . But seriously, the French DO NOT know how to do Halloween. Not yet at least. I was told that it is a relatively new holiday here, and more of a commercial holiday, than anything. It was probably adopted at most 10 years ago, but seriously, by the things they carry in stores and stuff, you would think they decided to adopt Halloween yesterday. All the places have like a mask, a witch hat, and maybe some face paint. But I really needed some horns, and Sapna really needed some wings and a halo. Soooo, on a top by a worker at one of the shops we checked out, we were told that there was a store called “Halloween” on la rue Diables Bleues. And that’s all we got. So we headed out to that direction, and somehow found that street, by chance. But no store. So we randomly asked some people walking by, and everyone looked at us as if we were crazy! So here we were, sans half our costume, trying to find some supposed store, which we were thinking didn’t even exist. So then we asked these people in the street one more time, and they knew what we were talking about! So they told us where it was, and we thanked them, but then as we were leaving, Sapna turned to me and her roommate and asked us if any of us understood what they were saying. None of us did! Thus, we were back to point A, but now we knew that it did, in fact, exist.
A few blocks later, I went into a Deli, and asked the guy working there if he happened to know where the store was. And he did, and was nice enough to come out of the store to point it out to us. So, with his aid, we finally found the store. But it was well worth the time spent in search of it! It was like a goldmine of Halloween stuff.. Costumes, wigs, make-up, jewelry, props, EVERYTHING. Think Party City in NJ for Halloween times 5. It was that much stuff. So Sapna and I found exactly what we needed and then made the trek back. I was exhausted, but quite pleased with my purchase!

So that was my big adventure for the last couple of days. I have the apartment all to myself , which is kind of nice, because I can play my music as loud as I want when I want, but it’s also eerily quiet. But that does remind me of a story, that my roommate better never read anywhere. But the other day I had something in my teeth (sexy, I know!) But anyway, I tried brushing my teeth, but to no avail. So then I look over, and I see my roomie’s dental floss sitting there on the shelf. So, I figure, she wouldn’t miss a tiny little piece, and my teeth certainly wouldn’t miss the little piece of food stuck between them. So I go to steal a tiny piece of floss, but in doing so, pull out the last tiny piece of floss from the package! There is no way she would “forget” using the last piece of floss herself, so I couldn’t try telling her that she must have used it without remembering. And I couldn’t leave it there empty. So, here I am, trying to thread the tiny piece of dental floss back into the hole where it feeds from, cursing my luck and karma at the same time. But I am trying to put it in the little hole and then loop it around the spool, to make it look like it was never used (because it’s a translucent box). So, needless to say, it took awhile, and it’s still not perfect, but she hasn’t said anything yet, but she hasn’t appeared to have tried using it yet either. So wish me luck. Eep.

Anyway, I am going to go, because there is a busload of little kids that just made it to the beach, and they are throwing rocks all around me. And that one almost hit me. Who throws a rock backwards?!?

Happy Halloween to all!! I will be sure to let you know how the Halloween celebrating is here. Hopefully, it is better than the shopping for Halloween is.

Miss you all!!

MUAH!
XOXOX,
Dina

'Twas a Lovely Day Here, My Friends

Hello everyone! Hope all is stillll well with everyone. This e-mail is going to be a good one. I feel it in my left knee. It projects good things to come.



So, first off, I will start by mentioning how today was monumental for me, in that I washed my first pair of jeans by hand today. I know what you are all thinking. 1) Dina, that's so gross considering you've been there a month already and only have 2 pairs of jeans you like to wear. And by said logic, you're just unclean. 2) Dina, it's only handwashing. You're dumb.



But hear me out. It took me so long because I was scared to wash them. Yes, scared. So many things could have gone wrong, you see. I could have stained them with the detergent, I could have displaced so much water in the sink because of the weight of the jeans that the water could have overflowed. But scariest of all...I could have been hanging them up to dry, and my hand could have slipped or the heaviness could have made them fall the 5 stories onto a poor unsuspecting French walkers head. In which case, I could have gotten yelled at in French. Scary!



But I promised goodness, in this e-mail. So I will deliver.



First off, was my day yesterday. It was the last day of work before vacation for both me and my little French Fries (AKA students). I know, this is a rough life I lead. After 3 days of work, I get a 10 day vacation. It really stinks. But I digress. So yesterday I wanted to make it a Halloween oriented class, so I made them little picture cutouts of witches and ghosts and haunted houses, and so on. So I drag myself out of bed by 7 to make it out the door by 7:15, and then I get to work a half hour early. After waiting for someone to show up to open the door, I learn that I wasn't actually really needed until 10. So I thought that was a little annoying, but it turned out to be good, because I wanted to get the kiddies some candy for Halloween. So I asked the Director and he was all for the idea offering to reimburse my purchase. So I walked my tush to the grocery store and bought them some candy taffey stuff. It should be noted though, that a normal bag of candy at home that you can get on any given day in the States, is considered the JUMBO Halloween sized bag in France. So I had to buy many bags.



So teaching was good, then. It's always nice to have some candy for leverage to get them to stop talking. I wish they would reimburse me for candy every week. But anyway, at lunch time, I get two hours to try to figure out what to do with myself. So this time, in hopes to save some money, I brought a can of tuna to eat, and our ghetto can opener, and found a bench somewhere. So, as I was eating and minding my own business, something falls on me. With a thud, too. And when I looked at what it was, I was surprised to see that a bee had fallen from the sky right onto my arm. So that was to set the precident for the chain of events that were about to ensue. So as I am trying to get the fallen bee of my arm, I look over to my left and I see that a lady was trying to get a little water out of the fire hydrant-like thing on the street. But instead of a steady stream, WHOOSH, out comes out gallons of water...all over her. So what do I do? I quickly swallow my tuna so I can begin laughing. BUT THEN, instant Karma. While I am mid-laughter, I drop the agenda book from my hand onto the ground, only to see it had fallen next to my bag, which incidentally had fallen into dog poop...the dog poop, that i now noticed, was all over my shoe. Yup, I was a stinky laughing Poo Shoe. (By the way, they powerwash the streets here at least twice daily to try to get rid of all the hundred of dog poops that deface the sidewalks and streets). So that was just all sorts of gross.



Fortunately, that was the last of the incidents that occurred in that span of time. With my Poo Shoe, and my Crap Sack, I headed back to work and took the roll of toilet paper and douced my bag with water. And then I threw away my tuna can that was in a ziplock, as was the ghetto can opener (which I realized hours later). So a lesson can be learned from this. A ghetto can opener is better than no can opener.



So last night, me and the girls went to a bar and just hung out and chatted with each other. On the way home, however, we ran into some really drunk guys (a couple of them), and the best thing to do in France, is to ignore the aggressive guys. Sometimes even fake not understanding them is good work, too. So, these two guys start talking to us, and I wanted to take the sign language route and pretend we couldn't hear them but Angelique for some reason, went against the cardinal rule, and started speaking to them. So they start speaking in English with us, and then one of them pulls out a bottle of vodka from his jacket (which was like a magic trick in itself) to try to intice us to hang out with them, thinking that free alcohol was the ticket for us. So right after they show off their bottle to us, the guy holding it proceeds to drop it on Sapna's foot. So their supposed enticement goes down in flames. Or at least in pieces. So after that debacle, we just start walking away. They walk after us, and keep talking to us. And so I just say under my breath "Angelique, don't talk to them". But under my breath still meant audible, I guess, at which the other guy goes (In broken English) "Excuse me Miss. I am sorry. But you are not so nice. Zee French are nice, but you are not." And then he walked away. And then I laughed.



So then this brings us to today. We all went to the Prefecture today to get our Carte De Sejour, which is a card that French Citizens receive. It's like an ID card, and it's important for traveling, for banking, for lots of things. So we got part 1 of that taken care of today. And on the way home, Sharleen, the coordinator for us assistants who lives in our building, asks us if we heard the news? She told us that yesterday the police stormed into our building onto her floor at 6 AM, and took the 'extremely nice' neighbor out in handcuffs. So, it turns out, there is this big news story here that involves a bunch of people who work at the Nice Airport being arrested for stealing baggage and reselling them. The neighbor was one of the heads of the operation, and the items he seized were actually just chilling in our basement. So that was kind of crazy.



And then if that's not enough for crazy, as I was coming here to use the internet today, I was walking down the street and I look to the opposite side of the street, and I see a crowd of people, and a man on the ground. My first reaction was that he was hurt, but as I looked closer, there was a guy sitting on top of the man restraining him, by holding his arm behind his back. And the guy on the ground was yelling. I can't imagine the events that lead up to that scene, but a minute later the police arrived, and took the man for themselves. Nice is Nuts.



And that brings me to this moment in time. I very much want to use the bathroom, but this McDonald's is all high tech (even moreso than the fact that they have WiFi), and I have to buy something to get a receipt which has a code that I need to enter to get into the bathroom. Heck no. I will not give into the McMan. So there. That's all I got for you today. I hope my left knee was right!



I miss you all very much!



XOXO,

Dina

I went to the beach in late October, suckers.

Hello there everyone! I am here in Nice. If this is news to you, than I have been doing a really awful job in my writings. Good. Now at least that is out of the way. I am at La Sansas today using the internet. No, I am not being ghetto outside on a park bench stealing the WiFi today. "Why not?" You ask. Because it's already dark here, and I wanted to enjoy a delicious orangina and Tex Mex salad anyway. And now my breath smells like a giant Onion Tree. Even though onions don't grow on trees.

Anyway, let's see what I can talk about first. This weekend has been pretty slow. On Friday I went out with some of the girls to a bar called Checkpoint. It's a good crowd, because there are English speakers, French speakers, and other people, too. Right now, the world is really split into those two options for me, and all other fall on the periphery. So anyway, we went to this bar, and I met Sapna there and Angelique. Then a bunch of other assistants came (Renee, Liz, Ashley, and Martine). We had a really good time dancing and talking, and just being silly. Yeah, I said silly.

So, Martine is an assistant of Spanish, and he is from Mexico. And he looks like he should be in the movie Desperado. He has really long, full hair. So, I am giving this detailed description to segue into my next story. Which I hope he never reads. So while all of us were hanging out, this woman comes up to me, and goes "You like this sort of thing? Guy with longer hair than you?" To which, I just said "Oh, he's our friend." To which lady with the crazy accent says "He looks like animal." Me: "Oh. Haha." Crazy Accent: "If you were really good friend, you would tell him to cut hair.". Me: "...I'm gonna go dance now." So that was sort of awkward. I was taking a verbal assault on behalf of another person, given by some random outsider. So foreigners are weird. But that doesn't take away from the fact that Friday night was a good time. I even have pictures :)

Saturday was also a slow day. I had to go food shopping because all I had in the cupboard was a can of Tuna, and empty box of cereal, and the milk that I accidentally put in there instead of in the refrigerator. So yeah, I was out of milk, too. So I walked all the way to the grocery store, only to find out that my timing was off and I was smack in the middle of the French equivalent to the siesta. So I went home and watched some Melrose Place instead. Speaking of Melrose Place...when I said that French TV was bad, I spoke too soon. I heart Melrose Place. But I think the time elapsed over the years is what makes that show so good. Seeing the tight jeans with flannel shirts...TUCKED IN on Doug Savant from Desperate Housewives makes me way too happy.

Anyway, I finally made it to the grocery store, and then I went to steal the internet and do all that good stuff. But then on the way home, I took the bus, and I almost saw a senior Citizen brawl break out. I was just standing there minding my business, when I see two older people come on the bus. So this lady stands up to offer the seat to the old lady who just came on, but as she approached the chair, so did an old man at the same time. And this old man had super powers...in the form of crazy amounts of ear hair. I was ear level with him, and I am saying I could have braided a rug with his left ear alone. But that's neither here nor there. Anyway, they both hesitated for a moment, and the lady just sat down. But the old man wasn't liking that. Nah uh. So he offered a rebuttal to her move by saying that he was old. To which she didn't even have to say anything, cause she was clearly old. To which he said "I am holding a big bag". But she was holding one, too. Finally this woman next to them, who wasn't as old started telling off the old man, saying that it's only fair for the woman to get it, and yadda yadda yadda. So finally, a couple minutes later when they decided they were too tired from all the energy exertion, the old man just went to the back of the bus and took a seat there. And I was finally able to both giggle to myself and stop looking at ear hair.

Then yesterday night, I went downtown to Vieux Nice again, where we went to another bar, and a club, which made me so mad cause they charged 20 Euros to get in, and then they wouldn't let us take in our purses, so we had to pay even more money to check them in. And I just hate clubs as it is, so I opted to take my tushy, and get a cab home. So I stopped this taxi, hopped in, and the driver automatically knew I wasn't French from my accent, but was surprised that I was American because, and I quote, "You speak good French for an American". But I told him that with some wine, it gets even better. To which he said "18 euros, get out". Ok, he didn't say that, but it really was 18 euros for a 10 minute ride.

So today was a slow day. It was a really cloudy and cool morning, so I decided to walk downtown to see if i could find some curtains or something for my room. By the time I got there though, the weather had turned beautiful, so I decided to take the five more minutes and walk to the beach. Unfortunately, I didn't even think to bring my bathing suit, but I ended up lying on the rocks and soaking in a little sun anyway for a couple hours. Apparently old men don't like girls that sit alone, because 2 old men asked me if I was sad because I was alone. It's not acceptable to be single in France, it seems.

So that was my weekend. I am trying to think of good activitites for my little Frenchypoo students for Tuesday, since it is their last class before the break that extends through Halloween. So if anyone has any good ideas for me, let me know please :). Songs would be especially helpful!

I miss you all very much!
And it is officially 66 days until Megan comes!!!!


XOXOX,
Dina

Old Pics From Alix's Birthday Dinner

Here are some pictures from France for you to love and enjoy. So you better both love them and enjoy them!



by alixquinn

This is me and Sapna admiring the menu


by alixquinn

And this is me loving Tiramisu


by alixquinn

Alix, Angelique, me, and Sapna at a restaurant for Alix's birthday


by alixquinn

And now with the serious looks off our faces. Heehee.


by alixquinn

And this was us before Dinner. Sorry for the lack of chronology here.

I Think This Is Number 6

Hey hey hey! How are all of you people doing? I am doing pretty well. I think I am getting sick, though. It's impossible not to here with the everchanging weather. It changes more frequently than my underwear. First it's crazy amounts of hot in the day, then it drops down to crazy amounts of cold in the night. And then it rains, while poor Dina has to make the couple mile trek to her work sans umbrella. Needless to say, my nose is running like it's its fulltime job. Oh yeah, and it doesn't help that my roommate has been sick for like 3 weeks now, and the other assistants are also getting sick left and right. So that was my Nice rant. As in the city. Not as in the adjective.

So what's new? Well...I was talking to Matt, and he was talking about the A-Team, which reminds me that I wanted to tell you about my TV watching adventures. So a few days ago, I returned home and just wanted to watch some good old TV. So i flip the channels and all of a sudden I see a Black guy with dangly Dreamcatcher earrings, a mohawk, Bling before it was popular, and some crazy little get up. Needless to say, I had just flipped the channel to the "A-Team". Mister T was suddenly fluent in French. But to my dismay, his presense wasn't as commanding. I am pretty certain they chose a little White boy to his dubbing. So imagine big ol' Mr. T, saying "I Pity the Foo'", but in French, and high pitched. Loses some of the effect, huh?

Other than that, the TV is pretty lame here. Lots of game shows, and there is this show called the Star Academy, which is like American Idol, except here the contestants live in a house together and they include the reality drama aspect of that. The only cool part of that show is that they pop up with little captions whenever some sort of dramatic irony is present. It makes me giggle. Like this: tee hee.

So other than TV, and "The Office", which I am addicted to now, I have been occupied with work a little bit. It's getting a little difficult to make lesson plans because I teach 8 classes, and they all seem to be on different levels. So, I seem to forget what I went over the previous class, but it's quickly made obvious with the look of terror on the childrens' faces when I start to sing a song and they can't sing along. Or maybe it's just my voice. Wait, no, it's definitely my voice that strikes up the terror. They love songs though! I did the ABC song, which a lot of them already know until the 'Now I know my ABC's part'. But if you listen carefully, you can tell they are singing a bunch of nonsense words that sound pretty convincing. Like "Na ayno ma ABC, nexta wunju seeng wisme". And then I tried to teach them "10 Little Indians". They sing the numbers REALLY loudly, but the little indian part is just my crazy loud voice singing.

And there is definitely an old guy right now across from me watching me type. Which is very French. However, not many Frenchman here wear full out Sailor garb (the hat included) when they are clearly not on a sea voyage. That is what makes it a little creepy. And funny. But creepy.

So what else? Oh, last night I went to another Assistant's, Sapna's, apartment because she was throwing a housewarming party since she just moved in to her new apartment. There were some other assistants, as well as some of her roommate's friends. It was a pretty good time! I practiced my French more there than I think I have in all of France, thus far. There was the other girl there from Romania, actually. She has been in France for 5 years, and speaks very well. So we talked for a long time about Romania, cause she was quite excited to learn my family is from there. The roommate and his friends were also all studying film, too, which was pretty cool to talk about. OH, and I officially got word from a French person at the party that I looked like Evangeline Lilly. So now my number is 13 I think :). And someone said I looked like Charlize Theron, to which I profusely thanked them, and everybody shook their head almost violently, but then I realized he probably only got that notion because I told him I was born in South Africa. And that's how he got the Charlize connection.

Afterwards, last night, I went out with Sapna and Angelique to a discotheque. It was sooooo crowded. But we were talking along the way, and I asked if it ever just strikes them at random times that they are in France. Cause I had one of those moments. As I was walking and seeing everything written in French, I just had to stop and think "Holy Crap! You're in France!". And then when we got to the bar, where there was French rap playing, Angelique decided that that was one of those moments. I decided again when we were rocking out to "It's Raining Men" in a hip club. I was just waiting for some David Hasselhoff to come on. Or perhaps some mention of Jerry Lewis.

Ok, sailor man left, but now there is a pigeon sitting on the bench with me. It's quite cute actually. And creepy. But cute :)

Anyway, I am going to take a quick walk to the beach to nostalgically look at the water, and pray for a sunny and warm day tomorrow. I hope everyone is well there, and keep sending the e-mails :):):)!!


Miss you all very much!!
XOXOXO
Dina

Brr...Nice Should Never Get Cold

Hello everyone. I am sitting in the park across the street from the usual bar I go to. I have become that cheap that I am chilling with my laptop on a bench grasping at the WiFi from La Sansas. It could be a beautiful thing, but all I hear right now is construction noise to my left, and old man snoring to my right, and I am pretty cold right now. Good thing the laptop battery gets warm. It's the perfect ghetto heating, to the perfectly ghetto scenario.

So yesterday was my first day of teaching. It went pretty well, I must say. I incorrectly anticipated the duration of the lesson though, so I had to rely upon my quick wit to get me through. Ok, so it wasn't my quick wit I was relying on...it was the Blues Clues Alphabet Card Game that really got me through. But whatever. That's besides the point. Anyway, I got there about 45 minutes early to try to make a good impression. But the only impression I made was the one of my ass on the chair I sat in while waiting for everyone else to appear.

So, I went into my first class, which is one of the older levels, and I think it's fair to say that I did my worst job in there. I realized then my lack of proper timing for the activities, and I wasn't very animated during that class, due to insecurities and not knowing what to expect. They were responsive, nevertheless, and really really cute. I have to record their little voices for you all. "Mai Nime eez Dina". That's what they sound like.

So then, I made it to my next class, which went well. The kiddies love any sort of game, I am learning. So they appreciated my random games I had to offer. My third class sort of sucked, because the teacher wasn't a good disciplanarian, so she let them talk and all that stuff while I was trying to teach. It was a little rough.

My 4th Class was the cutest. They were about 8 years old, and they all had wide-eyed frightened expressions on their faces, which was somehow really adorable. And when they spoke, they not only had the accent, but they also had the little kid voice to add to that. And I made a point of speaking no French in any of the classes, but they asked me a question, and when I answered in French, they were shocked!

The rest of my classes followed the same suit (I have 8 classes over the course of the day). Basically I taught, the kids giggled (especially when I broke out the highfives...I figured if the autistic kids liked that, so would the French, right?). And the kids really seemed to like me. I have an advantage at the school, I admit. I am the only woman there who doesn't have a fan ready on her desk to aid with her menopausal hotflashes. I think a young teacher is a breath of fresh air (there is sort of a pun in there, i think). So when I was leaving, all the little students ran up to me and yelled "Haylo Mees Dina!", and they were all telling their parents that I was the new English teacher. It was heartening, and hopefully financially rewarding, because I am hoping to get a tutoring/babysitting gig out of the deal :)

So tomorrow I go again, and I will let you know how it goes. If any of you have any suggestions, let me know please! Games/Songs/Stories/ANYTHING, dammit!

Last night I also went out to a downtown bar with Sapna. It was a pretty good time. I saw my first good coverband! What a relief! They don't all play "Funkytown"! But, alas, I don't think that band plays there all too often. C'est dommage!

ANYWAY, I am freezing my little American feet off. (Story about that...in France, I am a size 40 shoe, which is considered to be at Sasquatian proportions here, so much so, that many stores don't even go up to that size. So we are apparently war-loving, fat, McDonald's loving Bigfoots here. But I digress...)

I miss you all very much, and hope to hear from you soon. BRRRRRRR. A bientot!

XOXOXO,
Dina

Nifty Nice

So, this time, I am at no shortage of stories to share with you. So many strange/funny/loco things have happened recently. So let’s see. Where should I start??

I’ll start at the moment I left the internet café the other day after writing my last e-mail. There are only late night buses that run here after 9 PM , which is kind of annoying because they follow very different routes, and they only come around every hour. So, to my joy, Alix and I were able to make our bus (after running like idiots). And so we were in good spirits while hyperventilating after the run (ok, that was only me), and then we see this seemingly homeless man get on the bus. The only reason I noticed him was because she seemed to be very intoxicated, because he was stumbling around. So that was that. BUT THEN, he reaches into his fanny pack (yes, I said fanny pack), and touches something. And next thing we know, there are 3 RATS that come out. And this guy is sitting in the seat right in front of Alix and me. So then, he starts letting them crawl around on his shoulders and neck (which happened to be right in front of our faces), and every once in awhile, one falls onto his lap or next to him. EWWWW. I can’t even write this without getting the heebie jeebies. So after I practically am sitting in Alix’s lap cause I need some comforting, and all the other ladies around have panic stricken faces, Alix and I decide to get off the bus at the next possible stop. So much for running for the bus. But seriously. Who A) has a fanny pack, B) Keeps rats in their fanny pack? Ick. In my mind this story takes the cake for being so bizarringly disgusting….

So, for the next story, I was talking to Alix about these e-mails, and she asked me if I had mentioned Mister Opera Man to you yet. And I had not. So you know how every once in awhile when you are on your own (or even in the company of a friend) you love just blasting your music and soaking it in? Well, imagine doing that every single day at lunch time, but with French Opera music. And imagine being this guy’s neighbor. I say to each his own, but not when his own is now mine, too. So this story is lame in comparison to the other one. I apologize.

Yesterday, I started going to these seminars (6 hours of lectures) about how I am expected to teach. So I started talking to these two English girls, who are very nice, and are teaching me the differences between British English and American English (and who also shot down my attempt at an English Accent). So, while I was eating my crisps at tea with these two Freshers in Uni, an older man came up to me (I would guess he was in his late 60’s), and he told me that my face very much resembled that of his mother when she was his age. I somehow was flattered. I don’t know why, because as far as I am concerned his mother could have been Eleanor Roosevelt (who we all know was not much of a looker), but it was sort of nice that I invoked this memory in him, so much so that he felt the need to stop and tell me. Or at least I am 75% sure that is what he told me. My French comprehension is still a little shaky.

Oh yeah. There is one more anecdote that I thought was adorable/funny that I forgot to mention from my observations. In one of the classes, the students were reviewing “My name is”, “I am ___ years old.”, “I am from…”, etc. So they had to choose a celebrity and write their identity on a card as if they were them. A few kids chose 50 Cent (who, I had to explain to the principal that was observing with me, is a rap artist who chose to leave the s of the “Cent” even though it is, in fact, improper English). Anyway, one of the kids chose “Misturebine”, which at first looks like some crazy artist or something. But when he said it aloud, we realized, with much amusement, that he was actually talking about “Mr. Bean”. So that made me giggle. Hee hee.

So that is pretty much what I wanted to write about. I actually have to head back to part 2 of my seminars L. I also have them all day tomorrow, too. Make them stop!

I still miss you all, and I’m still appreciating the e-mails, mail, and calls that you are receiving very much!!

Much love,

Dina XOXOX

(I don’t know if I want to call myself Dina Berk anymore, because yesterday I found out that the people in France say “Berk” instead of “Yuck”, So basically that makes my French name DinaYuck. Not cool. )