I think I had mentioned a few blogs back the possibility of going to Germany for Christmas, but I met a few fellow English assistants last weekend who were planning on spending the holiday in Italy and were happy to include me in their planning. Since I'd already been feeling somewhat anxious about practically inviting myself to Fanny's house for Christmas, I'd been researching other options, and she seemed enthusiastic about me going to Italy. So, no imposing myself and also no disappointed would-be host! I think it's going to work out fine. I'm flying in to Rome on December 20th and am probably going to couchsurf that night since the others don't get in until the next day -- I couldn't resist the cheaper ticket -- and then take a train on the 26th to Florence for a couple days before flying out of Rome on the 29th.
I still don't know what I'll be doing for New Year's Eve, but hopefully something in St-Etienne will come together. If not, I'll probably sleep through it in Feurs; between having 8:00am lessons most days and there being not much to do here in the evenings, I've been going to bed somewhat ridiculously early these days.
Also, the possibility of moving to St-Etienne still looms on the horizon. Fanny is a stronger advocate for this than I am, since even though it sucks to be without internet, phone, or TV, I've more or less gotten used to it (especially since I never had TV or a landline in college anyway). Moving to St-Etienne would probably also mean giving up on the running club and on my scenic countryside runs alone, though after having lived in DC for a few months I know city running is doable. There's also the certainty that rent would be higher, and there would be an hour each way commute to school....
Yeah, so I'm not exactly oozing enthusiasm. But at the same time, living in St-E would mean not being so socially isolated, we'd almost certainly have internet, and I could look into getting a second job. After all, I only work 3 days a week, and honestly I've felt kind of weird not having at least two jobs. Maybe in a bookstore or at least tutoring English? Also, grocery shopping on Sunday or Monday would also be in the realm of possibility... Anyway, that's still in the very early stages, especially since mid-November isn't exactly the ideal time to be apartment hunting in a college city.
In the more immediate future, I (perhaps somewhat stupidly) offered to make a huge Thanksgiving dinner for the English teachers at the lycée next Thursday, so in my free time I've been somewhat frantically chasing down recipes and trying to figure out what ingredients I might actually be able to find here (wish me luck with pecans, cranberries, and canned pumpkin...). I know I'll at least have a turkey, since on Tuesday I went to the butcher in Feurs and ordered one to arrive next week. He warned me that it probably wouldn't be a very big one since in France turkeys are more of a Christmas dish, so as of now they aren't quite as big as they will be in a month. But since I'm only making a dinner for 8 to 10 people (only 8 to 10, he said... heh), it should be sufficient.
Also on the menu are wild rice and goat cheese stuffing, glazed carrots, fennel and rosemary mashed potatoes, sweet potato soufflé, gravy, salad, pecan pie, and maybe cranberry sauce and triple chocolate pumpkin pie, depending on if I can find the titular ingredients. I'm predicting a massive food blog for next weekend, provided everything turns out well and is worth writing about! One of the teachers has volunteered her house for the feast, and since neither of us have classes on Wednesday, that's going to be major cooking day since I do work on Thanksgiving itself. There are a couple dishes that have to be made that day, though, so if possible I might host my "classes" in the little cottage; aka make the students help me cook and show them American measuring implements, Thanksgiving traditions, etc. Hopefully I can swing it! If not, there will be much running back and forth and hoping the turkey/my house doesn't explode in the hour I'm teaching class.
Oh yeah, I did finally get a new rendez-vous for the Immigration office. I'm glad I didn't go over to Lyon to hassle them about it, because it would have been a waste of time. My next appointment is for Dec. 3, and come hell or high water or more striking, you can be sure I won't be missing that one.
Once again the hour of internet cut-off approaches, alas. Tomorrow I'm going into St-Etienne to see about picking up my (hopefully unlocked) iPhone and working on some Italy trip details, but aside from that it should be a pretty low-key weekend. Actually, there's a 9k race in St-Galmier on Sunday that I might run, but the weather's looking iffy and I'd rather not run in the rain. So maybe not such a low-key weekend after all.
bon weekend!
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