Ma vie en rose

Mike (my coworker) and Mariia (my student) and I took off early Saturday morning, on a flight to Kiev. Her mother was a gem, and picked us up at the airport -- both Mariia and her mother spent the ride describing the city and the country. I, of course, spent the whole ride listening intently, and trying to pronounce every street sign we passed.

Tips for learning the Cyrillic alphabet:
1. Take a ton of math classes. a bunch of letters look similar to math symbols, like rho and pi...
2. Practice with a patient person for umpteen hours. Mariia is a saint, with pronounciation and correction.
3. Be stubborn. I'm sure Mike and  Mariia were ready to shoot me by the end of the trip, with how often I'd be caught staring in random directions.

Kiev straddles the Dnepr River, like most cities. The left bank has most of the old city (historic buildings/churches), the city center (skyscrapers), and tourist stuff, while the right bank is mostly residential areas and soviet-style housing complexes.

Touring Kiev. Thanks to Mariia's efforst, we saw all of the major sites in the city. Her house is right off Khreschatyk, the main boulevard, and just a short walk away from Independence Square and the Marinsky Palace. We took a tour of the Pechersky Lavra complex and tomb/caves, then took the furnicular up to the "Upper city": Sofiyska Square, St Sophia's Cathedral, and St Mikhail's Monestary of the golden domes. 




Some of the best pictures:


We also walked Andriyivsky Uzviz, the long street where many artisans sell their wares. I bought a nice set of matrushka dolls, and a mounted sculpture of carved wood, both very...ukranian, for lack of a better word.

Sunday night we ate dinner at Tsarsky Selo, an "authentic" Ukranian-themed restaurant. It was hilarious, too, that it was designed in the style of the springtime Ukranian countryside... especially when (1.) it was snowing heavily outside, and (2.) the drunken plastercast 'farmer' was either very cute or very disturbing.

One of the biggest, most impressive things I saw in Kiev (other than the guilded churches, of course): the Ukranian equivalent of the Statue of Liberty, essentially, which overlooks much of the city.




I will post all of the pictures taken (of Kiev and Lvov) on facebook.



The Lvov itinerary included the following: Monday we toured the countryside, seeing the famous Pochayiv monastery, as well as Zolochiv, Pidhirtsi, and Oleska castles. Got some simply gorgeous photos of the ukranian countryside:


Then Tuesday we spent in the city itself, with the University of Lviv, Shevchenko monument, the Dominican, Latin, and Armenain (my favorite, with crazy cool artwork by John Henry Rozen) cathedrals, and with brief stops at the Pharmecy museum, the Royal Arsenal, and the Strysky Park. We also had an interesting evening adventure, trying to locate the newly-opened 'Kumpel' restaurant, on a recommendation from Galyna Nazadorovska, our gracious and knowledgable Lvov tourguide. We eventually found it, and the food was delicious.

Again, I dragged Mike and Mariia to see the old Jewish quarter, which was (depressingly enough) mostly destroyed. Evidences of the old synagogue and mezzuzzot were still there, but that was essentially it. We did go to the city synagogue that is still in use, but the community is very small, and very... well, defensive.
Understandably so, since Ukraine has been through some tough times, and only recently starting to see the light at the other side. I hope it'll improve, honestly... Ukraine felt the most like "the motherland," of all the travels i've done. Felt the most like a darker, more concentrated version of what I knew, growing up in the US.


I'd love to get a chance to go back, and hike in the Carpathians... and perhaps get closer to St Petersburg (russia) and Minsk (belarus).

So much to do, so little time.

Woke up at Abigail's this morning, and planned our next move to Belfast.
The bus from Busarus Station took us from Dublin to Belfast in a little over 2.5 hrs... and we were lucky to find a cozy place to stay in the Crocus Bed & Breakfast. Thankfully, Katie hinted that Belfast's hostels are were few and mostly sketchy, and judging from the "feel" of the city, i would not want to be here without a nice place to stay.



The good ol' Irish Patty.
We've met two "Pat"s since we arrived in Belfast. The first, our scruffy-but-welcoming B&B owner, seemed of the opinion that tea/coffee and biscuits are an important part of an Irish welcome, and had both ready and waiting for when we arrived. He was also a bit blind, and a bit off with directions... suggested we find Madden's, if we were looking for a good pub, but sent us on a bit of a goose chase to find it.

After a few pints at Madden's, managed to pick up our second 'paddy' Pat -- a jovial man of about 60 years, just about most outgoing man I'd ever met. He not only directed us towards a good place for dinner, he also bought us all a round of drinks, then bought us dinner... and then made a pass at Jayne. Needless to say, the adventure that started out so friendly and fun became very strained, very quickly -- namely, Jayne was ready to run, and JR and I worked at top speed make a graceful (tactful?) exit. So after that stress, we promptly went to a grocery store and treated ourselves to a pint... of ice cream. Next to the city hall and a giant ferris wheel with a "VIP" chair.

Then a quiet evening in the B & B... those afternoon adventures were enough.
 

Jayne and I made for a mellow friday night, so that we could 1. take full advantage from our sweet stay at the Globetrotters hostel (which is all the rave reviews boast it to be -- breakfast was amazing, place was beautiful/safe/clean, staff was friendly, etc. etc.), and 2. meet JR at a relatively decent hour, on Saturday morning.

JR landed around 8am, and by the time Jayne and I met up with him at our next hostel, it was almost 11am. Unfortunately, it was still another few hours before we could head back out again, because the Celts House "hostel" was wicked sub-par, for multiple reasons. I have never considered myself a picky person about accomodations, and spending a summer camped out in western Massachusetts woods did nothing to raise my standards... still, this place was nothing short of sketchy, and incredibly expensive, given how bad the service was.

Once we got out and got fed and watered ( = more Guinness, this time at The Duke), Saturday unfolded into a patchwork day... and in JR's case, a very long one. We toured the Guinness Storehouse, which was a bit of a let-down, other than the city photos we took at the Gravity Bar. Then we snagged last-minute tickets to the Ireland vs. Bulgaria football match (a world cup qualifier), which also managed to be a bit of a let-down, with Ireland's team playing rather like crap. 

Then in the evening, met up with Jayne's irish friends from Kerry, who all suggested we go randomly to the Sugar Club... which just happened to be hosting a "Burlesque Night", of all things. Think "men in oldfashioned tuxedos" and "women in victorian corsets/fishnet stockings," and a whole lot of drunken revelry. The best part was the live jazz band playing great music, so we danced the night away.

Sunday became sports and sightseeing, falling into place at the last minute. Katie joined JR and Jayne and me for another game -- this time, it was a gaelic football match, Dublin vs. Kerry. I had no idea what irish football was before that day, and I've decided it's going on my list of "Favorite Sports To Watch"! The game's a cross between rugby, soccer, and volleyball, and the action never stops... great game, ending in a tie.
 

Also snapped some pretty great photos, of the game and crowd. I'll upload them when I get home, but they include:

1. A few good shots of the game itself

2. A great example of typical irish teenagers, complete with scruffy clothes and funny "screw you" attitudes.

3. A pic of the most adorable irish baby in the universe.

Sunday afternoon ended with a drive across both sides of town, to see the Trinity College campus, the enormous Phoenix Park to the west of the city center (with fields, a zoo, and flocks of deer), the docks to the south/east and Blackrock, a little suburban sea village, just south of Dublin along the coast.

Monday's adventure-to-come: Belfast!

... oh, and on a side note: mna means "women", and fir means "men". This comes in handy when searching for public toilets.

Dobre dyen from Eire.

Stories of Ukraine will just have to wait, because there's so much to talk about in the present.

After a long-but-not-unpleasant layover in London Luton, landed in Dublin on Wednesday evening, and (at the request of Jayne and John) took a prompt taxi directly to the Long Hall pub. So, the answer to the question, 'did you do much drinking in ireland?' is: 'yes'. (NOTE TO SELF: a great pub, worth visiting again... the bartender put my unfinished pint under Jayne's coat and told us to take it with us. So provided it survives the plane ride home, I now have a guinness glass.)

Made a stunning successful walk back to our hostel (the Avalon House), and had a relaxing Thursday... filled with (yes) more beer and pub food. Jayne and I promised ourselves to hold back on our actual "tour" of the city, for JR's sake. So we've been catching up on sleep, good food, thrift store shopping along the George Street Market/Arcade, Grafton Street, and O'Connelly Street. Attempted to find a nice celtic ring, and went to no less than three "Carroll's: Irish gifts" stores, but there were none to be found. Some things are just not meant to be.

Thursday night was hilarious, because we spent a solid three hours at the Stag's Head upstairs parlor, chatting with our delightful bartender, Murrish Walsh (from Killarney). Also bumped into a crew of locals out celebrating a birthday, and they brainstormed a grade-A "Grafton Street pub crawl" list for Jayne and me... which is fabulous, because there's no way we were going to spend time and money in the Temple Bar district. People would have you think it's a local scene, but with the tourists all around, it's anything but. So we're excited to drift around the local scene a bit, and Saturday night promises to be fun in that great 'local scene' way, out in the Ranelagh suburb. It is true, what people say : the Irish are some of the most friendly, outgoing people around! (PS - didn't end up out in Ranelagh, saturday night, but it was still a *great* night.)

Friday, Jayne and I met up with Katie for lunch and a bit of sightseeing. We had a great lunch at the Queen's Tart, then drifted to some more thrift shops and to "Twinnings' " craft store off of O'Connell street. I finally bought some circular knitting needles, which i've been wanting for some time, now. And Katie showed me this wonderful online knitting community, so i've never been more excited about new projects!

It rained in the early afternoon, so we went back to our (fantastic) hostel for a nap, some tea, and some blog-updating. And as I wrote this, three women (dressed in bright red 'devil' costumes) walked down into the lobby, ordered a taxi cab to Temple Bar, and wobbled their way out the front door. No doubt they're out for a nutty friday night... glad that Jayne and I are meeting Katie and her friends down near Grafton Street, after some dinner.

Leysin's ski season ends on April 15, but i'm pretty sure that mine ended the Sunday before spring break started... Nicole and I went around dozens of pistes, skiied down the Berneuse a couple of times, had a last hot chocolate/vin chaud/crappy overpriced hot dog at Les Fers, and both agreeing that it was sad to see it end! The whole season's been great, and i've gone from a "fly-screaming-down-the-mountain" beginner, to an intermediate skiier who can at least survive all of the runs in Leysin, however ungracefully.

The last week of school before spring break returned to our 'fall schedule'. The whole situation was bittersweet for multiple reasons, the foremost being that we are all now spoiled (students and teachers alike) buy expecting half-days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. *sigh* oh well.

But then again, like i said, time for new adventures: Spring break!

The plan:
Ukraine (3/21- 3/25)Ireland (3/25 - 4/01)I'm so excited to explore Ukraine with Mike (coworker) and Mariia (student), especially since Mariia can help us get through the language barrier... I found a russian-french pocket dictionary in the LAS school library, and it's totally coming with me. If i don't know how to read the cyrillic alphabet by the end of the trip, it would be pathetic.

Also can't wait for the second half of the trip, too. Jayne and her younger brother, John, are going for the first week, and i'm going to meet up with them both for the second half. Then Jayne and I have a few days by ourselves, relaxing in Dublin, before JR arrives to join us both... he's staying for a week, then drifting onwards to Amsterdam, while Jayne and I are going back to switzerland. As cheezy as it sounds, I'm sure the week will be filled with unhealthy, delicious pub food and an outrageous amount of Guinness. And i'll get to see Katie and JR, and life doesnt get much better than good food with good company.

Not even skiing can top that.

So cousin Adam wins the prize for being the first person to come visit me in switzerland, crashing at my place from last Thursday to Tuesday... well, technically Tuesday. On Tuesday night, after we'd said goodbye and everything, I get a phone call from Carolyn informing me that my cousin is at my door, staying for another night... Leysin is addicting.

I know Adam'll do a great job of describing his stay in his own words, but here's a quick summary. Thursday: snowshoeing, Friday: skiing, snowshoeing, drinking, Saturday: skiing, fondue, Sunday: skiing, (and lesson-planning, for me) Monday: (work for me) skiing, Tuesday: skiing, Wednesday: skiing...fun times.

For me, the more I ski, the more addicting it becomes. I am definitely not one of the people who can forget their own mortality while barreling down the face of a cliff at 50 mph, nor did I grow up on skis like some of the kids in Leysin... consequently, my learning can be described as 'enthusiastic' (like anything I choose to do) yet 'cautious'-- probably a little more so than is good for me. A few weeks ago I feel pretty hard and bruised up my right leg, which definitely knocked my confidence down a few notches, in spite of several self-given pep talks. 

So I can be grateful that Adam motivated me (us) to not only go to Gstaad (the Schönried - Saanenmöser - Zweisimmen - St. Stephan slopes) for the weekend, but also that he didn't tell me -- or didn't notice -- that one of the runs we were going down was labeled as black. I spent most of that Saturday skiing with the Kanes so Adam could throw himself down more advanced runs, but as my collegue Kevin so eloquently put it, "trial by fire." I won't lie, it was a pretty stressful day, going down new slopes, on only 1 hour of sleep (yes, Friday night got a little out of hand...). But there were also beautiful moments:

That's all for now... other than (as usual) I miss everyone else from home!

Here's a gigantic hint: come visit!!

A short update on the latest since New Years, 2009:

- A long, long trip back to Leysin
No longer a surprise. As i mentioned to a friend, transatlantic flights are heinous, no matter how you cut it. A total of 13+ hours of travel, including one sleepless night, a 4-hour layover in Dublin (a small taste of which makes me really, really, want to go back!), three separate flights, and then an irregularly steep/long "hike" from the Vermont Leysin train stop, up to the Beau Site door. My new ski bag left my shoulder bruised for the first two days.

- New acquisitions to the apartment

A spice rack! Perfect timing, actually, that Carolyn offered to pass it on to me the unused one she received last year... now that i have quite a few cooking spices starting to crowd my cabinet. Gives me all the more reason to drift down to the weekend Vevey market to buy more spices... *maniac laughter*

Two paintings! Because a home (eventually) deserves more than just posters.

The first came from the CORA mini "artisan market" near Evian-les-Bains, the French town where Evian water comes from:
View Larger Map it's a tiny little thing, but I really liked it... and that was that.

The second came from Morocco, and it simply caught my eye. I feel like these pictures don't quite do it justice.

A lamp! Inherited from a fellow teacher, eager to empty her own apartment.

…And sheets for my guest bed! Which are not worth showing. But are quite exciting to talk about, because it means that you have officially no excuse to not come and visit!

- Exciting upcoming events:
Tomorrow: A morning "dorm faculty" meeting, afternoon Geometry extra help session, a pickup VB game in the gym, and then an evening snowshoe trip up to Les Fers!
Saturday: Trip to Vevey market with Daryl, to get off the mountain AND to plan for our upcoming "Casino Royale" murder mystery evening extravaganza, Friday the 16th!
Sunday: The "beginner ski" group's first lesson!! Then off to see a matinee showing of the new(ish) Kidman/Jackman movie, "Australia," which has finally made its way to Leysin's excuse for a movie theater.

Way back in August, I purposefully booked my returning US flight for several days after the end of the school term... not that I'd any idea what I'd be doing with that time, but who knew? Better to have a chance to travel than not. And in the end, the gamble worked: six days in Marrakech (or Marrakesh, with French spelling), traveling with a college friend, was well worth it!



Why Morocco? Well, I've been wanting to go to Africa for some time, and thought that such a melting pot might be a good place to start. After all, it's quite francophone (good to disguise my american-ness, if need be), and Marrakesh is known for being a more liberal (safe?) city -- with plenty still to see -- than many other places in the area. That, and one of my students' family is based out of Marrakesh, and he was so enthusiastic at the idea of me visiting that it was settled.

The country is beautiful! Marrakech is a very reasonable distance from the highest mountains in Africa, the Atlas -- in fact, since it was only about an hour's drive away, Amanda and I ended up taking a day trip out there, to hike a bit and visit a local Berber village. The trip itself was slightly touristic, I won't lie, but because our guides, Yousef and Abdul, were so open and willing to trade stories with us, it ended up not feeling quite so cookie-cutter.

The city of Marrakech itself is divided into several parts -- the old part is the "Medina" or the 'Mouassine" and the newer part is the "Gueliz"... there's also a bedroom community part which is known as the "Palmiers" (meaning 'palm tree' in french, because there are a lot of palm trees there). We stayed in the old part of town, where all of the streets are small and windy and the cacaphony of sights, smells, and exuberant street vendors threaten to overwhelm you. Since I was a total idiot, I managed to forget my camera on the trip... but Amanda took plenty of pictures for the both of us, and there are dozens more on the internet, so this entry won't go without some visual sidekicks!

An image of the souks (litterally "the shops,") the cramped part of town where all of the traditional vendors sold their traditional items. There were spices, leather goods, pottery, there was art, woodwork, food, dried fruit, and oh so much more!!

A sight of the Atlas mountains, permanently in the background while we were in the city, but especially beautiful as we drove towards them:
The language was one of my favorite parts about the trip. In Morocco, where they speak a bastardized form of Arabic that mixes classical arabic with Berber dialects, French and Spanish. It's totally possible to get buy in French, and in many places, english, too... but it was a ton of fun to learn a bit of moroccan arabic here and there! Like, s'bah l'khair is 'good morning', and k'feish k'het ghoul...? means 'how do you say...?' . And everyone was so friendly and welcoming that it was a pleasure to wander the streets!

...more to come, soon.

So, my "daily commute" from the home to the classroom is a 7-minute walk, essentially consisting of a flight of steps and a long driveways. And yet, every morning it continues to blow my mind -- whether it's the 'winter wonderland' factor, the sheer quantity of snow that's on the ground, or the ridiculousness of various parts of the walk (to be elaborated on, shortly, below), it was totally worth dragging my camera around with me one morning, and totally worth sharing with you, now.

First thing's first -- on this day, I was lucky enough to be walking to the 'Math Chalet' without having to trudge through a blizzard. On mornings when the snow's falling strong, it's a little hard to see. But on a clear day like this, you leave Beau Site, turn left, and immediately face Beau Site's long driveway down to the main road.
As you can tell, the Swiss do a fabulous job of not plowing their streets. This makes for wonderful sledding ("on peut faire la luge") on the main roads, but also creates less-than-stellar safety for pedestrian traffic. I'm seriously considering investing in "Yak Traks" or some other sort of traction boost that can be tied on to the bottoms of my shoes, because with the snow and ice and general slanty-ness of the roads, my own footwear is sub-par.

Before you go down the driveway, turn to the right and face (what I've fondly nicknamed) the Stairs of
Death. 


The picture provided doesn't do justice to them -- all of the steps are either cracked, broken, tilted at horrible angles, or usually covered in 6 inches of snow. It makes for a hell of a lot of fun in the morning, but is even more interesting on the way back down in the afternoon.

At the top of the Stairs is KLAS, or the Kumon Leysin American School. In spite of the similarity in names, it's quite different from LAS -- namely, it's a japanese high school (grades 10-12) with a fourth of the student body size of LAS, consisting of a campus of two buildings instead of 6+. We fondly refer to them as "Kumon," and they regularly humiliate us in volleyball at every tournament (both boys and girls teams).




Sometimes, when I walk up the stairs in the morning, you can hear the cooks preparing breakfast for its (approx) 60 students and 30 faculty/admin... at 6:45, they are the only people out and about.



Then you turn left, and walk down the main driveway, towards the Math Chalet. Again with the ice and the snow and the slippery roads. But then you turn to the left and look out through the fence at the sunrise... and everything feels worth it.

Today i gave my SL1 kids a 10 minute "nap time" at the beginning of class, in honor of the fact that it's a damn early monday morning and it's one student's birthday.

Spent saturday "leading" a student trip to Geneva (i.e., i was the faculty supervisor on the school bus), then had fun walking around the old part of geneva with a fellow teacher, chatting in french, sampling good chocolate and vin chaud, and browsing through Geneva's pathetic excuse for a traditional european 'Christmas Market'. Some teachers went on a 3-day trip this past weekend, to tour the Strasbourg (france) and Heidleberg (germany) christmas markets, but i have evening dorm duty and couldnt go. So the plan is to check out the Montreux and Lausanne christmas markets (which i hear are quite good) next weekend, amidst all the prep for the kids' final exams. :)

Sunday was mostly grading for a precalc portfolio project for 2 classes (and theres a ton more of that kind of stuff to do). We're in the last week of classes, now, with only 4 days of school... so close to being done! Also had a rehearsal for this friday's upcoming "Open Mic" performance -- i've been snookered into singing two songs -- "Rock you like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions, and "Like a Stone" by Audioslave. So expect to see some pictures soon, with me in full rockstar garb: spiked attire, leopard print, leather, the works :)

...and then break! i'll be back stateside on dec 20th, until jan 2nd. definitely in MA, and probably in nyc for a bit, too.

As a part of the curriculum, LAS takes a week in the fall and once again in the spring, when the entire student body leaves on trips around Europe. One of these "Culturals" was offered in Madrid, for the students who wanted to work on their Spanish and visit a part of Spain. Somehow, I got really lucky and the Spanish teacher organizing the trip allowed me to tag along as co-leader and fellow spanish learner :)

So, with eleven students and two teachers, we flew out of Geneva on Monday and stayed the week in Madrid, getting back to Leysin on Friday evening. For the first day, we all settled in with our host families (even Hugh and I were with host families, too) and got acquainted with the area. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were the really busy days -- we'd meet in the morning (around 9:30am) somewhere in the city, to tour museums and places, then have a bit of free time between 1:30 and 3:30pm, before making it back to our afternoon classes at Babylon Idiomas (our host program/school) from 4-6pm. In Spain, mealtimes and such are very different from in America -- you have a small breakfast before 8:30am, a bit of a snack around 10:30 or 11 am, then a big lunch between 2 and 3pm, "tapas" from 7-8pm and then dinner at 10pm. A total adjustment from LAS, where we tend to eat lunch around 11am on most days!


Overall, the week was wonderful. We went to the Museo del Prado on Tuesday, which has many works of art that are famous for people who care anything about art, but completely unknown to people who don't. It was great to see Las Meninas in person, and our guide -- who was fabulously animated when she talked, with a heavy Spanish-from-Spain accent -- told us to check out the painting through a mirror. If you do, you could tell that the painter, Velázquez, is actually left-handed, because he painted himself into the picture, backwards. Unfortunately, the other most famous work of art, Goya's La maja desnuda, was on loan to another museum, so we could only look at its sister piece, La maja vestida. Many of the pieces I actually remembered from Lynne's visit to Framingham when I was young, when she brought Shari and I a deck of cards covered with artwork by Goya, El Greco, Velázquez, Rubens, and more... We played Pesca por favor with them, and going to the museum was like visiting old friends.

On Wednesday, we all took a morning Renfe train to Toledo (about 30 minutes from Madrid), where we toured the old city, saw its Cathedral, the famous painting The Burial of the Count of Orgaz by El Greco, and one of the old synagogues (now turned Safardi museum), Sinagoga del Tránsito, founded in 1356. We had a small bit of a mishap, when half the students didnt show up at the station for the 3:30 return train to Madrid, and Hugh stayed behind to wait for them while I took the others back to Madrid for our afternoon class. It's a shame that we had to "ground" the kids for it (those who missed class could not go out that evening), but since this was essentially the worst thing that happened on the trip, I consider us, all in all, very lucky.

Thursday was also a busy day for tourism: in the morning, we first went to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home of the Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (their big soccer team). The boys of course loved that tour, and even though it was really cold in the stadium, our guide was really young and everyone ended up having a great time. After that we hit up the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía on Thursday (the 20th century and modern art museum, with lots of stuff by Salvador Dalí and Picasso's famous "Guernica").

For some people on the trip, the biggest letdown for the trip was the cold, rainy weather we had. Tuesday and Thursday rained all day, and though Wednesday was rain-free (making Toledo all the more of a trip highlight), the wind was still biting. All of the Spaniards I met complained bitterly about the cold, but I was as happy as a cricket, bundled up with boots, hat, gloves, and scarf. After all, how can you complain about expanding your vocab in spanish? Even if a lot of the sentences were along the lines of "What crappy weather we have today, no?"... it's still something new. My spanish is much better now, and although I'm still stuck on the baby sentences and choke when it comes to conjugating verbs in anything other than the present tense, at least I can stumble my way through a conversation. Huzzah for that.

But descriptions of the trip aren't complete without mentioning the visits with Lynne -- Mom's college roommate, who's been living in Madrid for the past 30-some-odd years. It would have been ridiculous to drift all the way to Spain without at least offering to take her out to lunch, though she turned the tables on me by ultimately inviting me out to lunch, instead. But the conversation was wonderful and the company was lovely, too -- without question a highlight of the week. And to make things even better, she invited me to attend Thursday night's "Networking Cocktails" of the European Professional Women's Network (the Madrid chapter of which she founded a while back)... so it was a night full of socializing, and full of babble in as many languages as I could muster -- french, spanish, english, and a smidge of portuguese. Fabulous time!

...okay, to be continued one more time, for the pesky last details. As for my Sunday, ended up hiking up to Profandaz with Tracey, and then catching up with a few of the other coworkers (about their cultural trips) before going to the gym and running on a full stomach. Not something I'll do again for a while.

Have to admit, this week was pretty fabulous.
Probably because it was the first real week when I (metaphorically) laid down my foot and (literally) put down my work at 3:30pm, to go home and enjoy my afternoons and my evenings.

It's so rediculously easy to let your life be overwhelmed by the job, in a boarding school situation! Every day you go home to a dorm, and every day it feels like you have some sort of extra committment to the school beyond the regular 8-3:30 workload -- for me, Monday/Wednesdays I coach the JV volleyball team, Mondays I also have evening dorm duty from 7-11:30pm, then Wednesday evenings we have "faculty family" meetings (with a group of students who've been deemed my "family" while at LAS), thursday mornings are faculty or department meetings, and then i'm only left with tuesday and thursday/friday to try and cram in time to exercise, catch up on emails, work on my spanish or piano, spend time with friends here, or other random crap.

But the week was also great for its culinary achievements -- i baked my first challah bread, my first kugel (now Shari can no longer tease me about it), my first stuffed peppers, shepherd's pie, and chicken curry. Invited people over for dinner to help me chew up the monthly food order, though I'm still fearful about the soon-to-be-state of my fridge, when i get back from Culturals at the end of this week.

Speaking of which. Fall Culturals! The entire student body goes off to different places around Europe (chaperoned by teachers) for a week, to be enriched somehow by the trip. I am off to Madrid, supervising the "Spanish Homestay" trip, and am SO excited about the opportunity to take spanish classes for free and improve my (nonexistant) spanish skills. Plus, getting to go to Madrid for a week shouldn't be that bad, either.

But now that means I need to go and pack, since I've been putting this off all day. I'll hopefully get a chance to write from spain, but if not (since I'm not really going to bring my computer), I'll be in touch when I get back!


...Also, here are some pictures from the Via Ferrata trip I went on last weekend... the view from the top was incredible!

Ah, the marking period. The end of another month at school (i.e., my second one), and possibly the first moment i've had to breath in a while, long enough to sit down and write something of substance here in the journal. I don't want to bore you with a long rant about the crappy bits of my job (after all, doesn't every job have crappy bits?), but it might be worth mentioning briefly.

Since the end of the marking period is on Monday, my Friday afternoon project today was to update all of my students' grades in PowerGrade, the online program that lets you record and calculate the class grades. As with PowerSchool -- the software we use to take attendance each day in class -- this software rarely works quickly and efficiently, and when it does work, it's a pain in the ass to use.

Never mind the fact that you've got to spend hours typing in assignment names/dates/point values and students grades into endless spreadsheets... the crowning glory of the grade-updating process is that, as a teacher, it is your responsibility to provide useful feedback to each student (and their parents) in the form of comments in PowerSchool.

Sometimes the writing of comments is fun -- you get to lavish praise on your best students by saying how "so-and-so is a model student for our class," and generally thanking them for not sucking quite as much as the rest of the class. It's also nice to be vengeful and vent about how "your child is currently failing math"... the underlying comments of course being, "do you as a parent want to do something about it?", or "why is your child such an idiot/lazy bum/[insert appropriate noun here]?"

Overall, however, the comment-writing is just monotonous, and even more painfully slow when you want to get outside and enjoy the gorgeous fall weather. We actually got about 8 inches of snow in the beginning of October (craaazy!! even for someone Boston-born), and although it all melted away, it left behind just enough nippy weather to make the leaves turn beautiful colors. I'm super happy to finally have the chance to enjoy a proper fall, since it's been about four years since i've lived around one! I can't wait to go jump in leaf piles, or have snow fights... and get set for some pretty crazy ski stories, once ski season hits :)

I know i've been more than behind with keeping this journal... definitely something i'll work more on. Other latest details (and things i'll have to talk more about later):

~ Did the Via Ferratta (rock climbing) trail last weekend, up on top of the mountain, with the Meyskins and one student, Max
~ Had the first meeting to prep for Fall Culturals -- I'm headed to Spain for a week-long homestay and spanish studying program, with 11 kids and another teacher
~ Sukkot is tomorrow and Morgan and Tim have built a Sukkah (and we've been invited to go and decorate it)!
~ Tonight is Howie's birthday, and we're going to the Top Pub to celebrate
~ I'm hoping to go to Geneva, Lausanne, or Vevey tomorrow, to do some shopping or spanish studying, and generally get off-mountain before going nuts
~ the Cooking Saga continues: yes, i am learning how to cook... slowly, and with plenty of mistakes. But last night I made Risotto, and it went over really well! For the beginners like me, i get a real kick out of websites like recipies.com and http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking (for the unit conversions with the metric measuring)

...hoping to get a chance to write emails to people, too... who knows?


Some of the fun pictures taken in the last few weeks, too:

 

It seemed like a good idea to start the journaling again, especially since I'm no longer in the continental US -- Graduating from college was definitely hard enough work to make me reconsider following it immediately with graduate school. So here I am, in Switzerland of all places, working at an international school in the Alps. And thus far -- well, 10 days -- it has been amazing.

First of all, the location: We're in the small village of Leysin, about 1400 meters up and about 600 meters from the local summit, on top of which sits la Berneuse restaurant. It's falls into a pretty stereotypical mold, this place, with its swiss chalets and cows/sheep/shetland ponies/mountain goats grazing everywhere, to say nothing of the quality of the cheese and the chocolate. The area also draws a big skiing population during the summer, and as a non-skiier for so long, I look foward to making a fool of myself on the slopes for the first time in a while, come October.



Second of all, the people: LAS (or "La School", as it's fondly known by the locals) is home to about 380 students, from over 58 countries around the world... in fact, i'm probably going to get a TON of practice, not only with my french (since it's the local native tongue) but also with my spanish, my portuguese, and my russian. Each faculty member is assigned about 6 students to be a part of a "faculty family," sometimes as a single parent, sometimes partnered with another faculty, with twice as many kids. My group is already wonderful, and everyone around the school (coworkers and staff) is awesome. I feel like a broken record writing this now, since it's essentially all I've been able to say since I arrived on the 18th: everyone is great, the scenery is breathtaking, and i'm having a blast.

Thirdly, the job: This is the only bit of things that remains in the air, since I haven't got my schedule and won't know until tonight what my classes are. Theoretically, I'll be teaching two types of classes, "Algebra & Geometry" and "IB Math SL1", which tend to be a mixture of 10th and 11th graders. Things might prove a bit challenging, since the school's adopting a new teaching method this year -- the Exeter style -- and it'll be a far cry away from the typical "lecture, assign homework, give test/quiz" pattern. I imagine some kids'll hate it (especially those less confident in math, since it's designed to require the students to become problem-solvers), and everyone, at least, will have adjusting pains. Hopefully, that won't mean that my pains are also bad -- theoretically, i've taught this way before, with all of my work with PLI... then again, actually being in the classroom is a new story altogether.

Today, we went on an all-school hike to the top of the local mountain. It was called the "Berneuse Challenge", not because the hike is too rigorous -- for it isn't -- but because the challenge would be making sure that all 380 kids actually made it to the top! So there was quite a bit of heckling, prodding, cajoling, and pushing, but we did it, and I walked with a group from the sophomore class. I rode the telecabine down (the skilift) not only so that i could see the views, but also so i could manage a run this afternoon... goodness knows Leysin will have me in shape yet, one way or another!

And tomorrow we have a short day of classes, to get the kids aware of how their schedules will work, so i'll be teaching five 20-minute classes. Should be fun!

I'll leave you with a few pictures, and hopefully there'll be time to write again soon.

The screen still hasn't gone away, in spite of my lost saturday afternoon, spent on the phone with Dell tech support. all that came out of those 2.5 hours was the consensus that "something is wrong with your computer" and "we need to reinstall windows, possibly wipe your hard drive and start over". i mean, most of my things are already backed up on cds at home, but not my most recent AZ pictures nor any of my music (which would be tragic). and besides, it's one thing to know that your files are backed up... but quite another to conscientiously erase the work of 3 years. and losing my collection of music is a sad prospect when looked at from the best of perspectives.

lots of work to do this week, especially since i've no longer got a computer on which to do them... ha, does this not sound familiar, or what? what a trend to have followed me back home from Paris! (for those who don't know, my computer upped and died on me while i was in France, a week before all of my big papers were due). this problem is quite definitely a software/driver problem, which i've decided is much worse than a hardware one. hardware you can just replace and/or fix. there is no untangling of software, once some minute piece of code has vanished or been modified-- it's absolutely impossible to wade through those things, and you just have to start from scratch. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that at the very least i can scramble to get as much music off my computer as possible, before my time runs out. otherwise, well... life will go on, but slightly less sunshine-y than before.

Finally got 8+ hours of sleep last night, for the first time in weeks... of course, the accompanying dreams were interesting. Dreamt that i was coming back to FHS (or some equivalent) at the end of my sophomore year in college, just in time to see the spring musical production. Somehow, i had volunteered myself to be "stage manager" of the show (in my dream, the one in charge of everything that has to do with set production and execution on the show nights), but in spite of having been at home for a few weeks before the opening of the show, i'd failed to show up at all for any of the time leading up to and including Tech Week--i arrived a couple acts away from the end of the show on opening night, and was wandering around backstage. 
i had no walkie talkie, was dressed in street clothes, nothing which made me look official. The highschool froshies/sophs had no idea who i was and didnt recognize me, and the upperclassmen actors/actresses who did recognize me looked at me with this air of pity. Those who were also in charge of the show didnt hide their disgust, and the drama director (or some equivalent, she never actually appeared face-to-face so i'd no idea what she looked like) didnt even acknowledge my presence in the theater. At one point, i saw a piece of paper with the list of all the names of students involved in the show, and next to mine there were the words "deleted"... though why in hell it should say that, i've no idea.
it was a pretty miserable dream, i have to say... me wandering around and hearing about how much i'd failed people, how this was the second year in a row that i'd done this (apparently, i'd not even bothered to show up the previous year, and the director had thought to give me a second chance), how the assistant stage managers had been forced to scramble to compensate for my lack of presence, how the show was worse than mediocre because of it. Best moment came when i almost ruined the production itself, getting myself trapped on stage during one of the acts, stuck behind a piece of scenery (since i'd been trying to cross the stage during a blackout, but had had no idea of the timing for the scene change)... almost knocking that piece of scenery over. 

i've never done anything like this before, but this dream definitely makes me not want to start any time soon. and perhaps it's a good thing, then, that i dont get to dream that often... dreams like that aren't necessarily worth dreaming.

Last night my laptop started giving me The Blue Screen of Death. when i turn it on, it loads happily for a few minutes and then, upp, no go, error, error, automatic shutdown... Besides the mild inconveniences of having no internet, music, LaTex, or word processor in my room, i am unhappy that the latest copy of my resume (representing several hours of work) is now trapped on the computer. the most worrisome possibility is that somehow an important driver for my wireless card got deleted when i was clearing out old programs the day before, because software problems are the most obnoxious. But there is a chance that something else is up, cause Lauren's laptop actually started doing the same thing... we've a 'fixing party' planned for tonight.

Ended up giving up on the prepping of today's Beamer presentation, and we all watched Teen Girl Squad instead, on Homestarrunner.com. I'd watched a couple strongbad episodes before, but i'd never found them particularly funny... until i saw teen girl squad. some are awful, some are cute, some are downright hilarious, and all have little 'easter egg' surprises along the way. definitely suggest ed for a decent laugh :) http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgsmenu.html

There was a dust storm yesterday, which was exciting only after i got to the dorm. Walking around outside and watching the sky go dark, the air getting dusty, no animals in sight, trees rustling menacingly, all within a matter of minutes... that's a little unnerving. it's ironic how often i forget to think of weather as anything but fascinating or annoying... weather can be very (very) dangerous.
not much else is new... learned some more stuff about the stock market, and (finally) conjugated a bunch of spanish verbs. preapps are due before august 1st for fellowships thru BMC, so that's on the agenda for the weekend, along with the buckets of stuff that the REU people are asking for, for monday (webpage, group webpage, poster...). Work is cut out for us.

Today feels like one of those great, productive days. So far, I have
~ Acquired new linens and towels for my room (a nearly two-week game of hide-and-go-seek with the housecleaning staff)
~ Fixed my damn Quicken to link up to TD banknorth (and THAT was a roughly 6-month warpath)
~ Learned how to program in HTML (wahoo!)
~ Figured out that around our Disease Free Equilibrium point, we have a steady-state bifurcation!! :)

...i do realize that that last bullet point pegs me as rediculous. But speaking of rediculous, it started pouring buckets as Nina, Lauren, Denisse, and I were walking back from Math 101. honestly, i find it crazy-ironic that as i was packing to come here, i consciously looked at my umbrella and said "No. I'm off to a desert. Of course I won't need an umbrella." And then I arrive to discover that oh, guess what? you guys are so lucky, July is Arizona's monsoon season!! 
Ha. ha. ha.
But it is actually turning out to be a nice thing... i like the rain quite a lot (though, as i mentioned to lauren, not quite so much that smell of rain on hot pavement). The rain tends to be either thunderstorms or sunshowers, which means you either get to see beautiful rainbows on a regular basis, or scramble to avoid getting struck by lightning. I'd say it throws some excitement back into life.

But, to keep up with the trend of productivity, there is still much to be done before the night finishes:
~ Gym/GRE vocab studying
~ learn about finances and investing and whatnot
~ suck it up and memorize a few spanish verb conjugasion 'boots'
~ figure out if that bifurcation point is a saddle-node, transcrital, or pitchfork one... then find the other two equilibrium points.
~ ...actually put the new linens on the bed.

SO. It is high time that i picked up this journal again, dust off the bits that've grown cobwebs in the past month, and keep more records of the travels.

The saga continues now, with the return trip from Paris, and a brief month's stay at home with the family, all of which I am far too lazy to discuss in full. If there are people who would like to hear more of those chronicles, let me know somehow and i'll do my best to fill in the gaps.

Meanwhile, things have taken an abrupt shift in direction: we've gone from studying literature/political science/history in Paris, to mathematical models for West Nile Virus transmission out in Arizona. Yes, i am a nerd, and sadly, i have a nice little certificate to prove it:



I figure that anything over a 50% makes it slightly serious. and granted, I did know the answers to some pretty obscure questions (i.e., how much RAM there is on my computer, what element is Mn on the periodic table...). The most pathetic part is that i was attempting really hard to be neutral while taking the quiz...you know, not trying too hard to be biased either way.

Having proven myself to be officially without hope, I've landed myself a summer research opportunity with the University of Arizona, studying the aforementioned topic as a part of my "Applied Mathematics" training. It's kind of fun, actually: research during the day, Tucson excursions at night, trips on the weekends, and plenty of time to reflect if this is the kind of lifestyle i'll want to pursue when i finish my undergrad degree. I'm following the standard track for grad school hopefuls: practicing my GRE vocab words, halfheartedly searching the web for potential graduate programs, and so forth. Not a bad way to pass the time in July, especially since I'm being paid to do so. Following the math stream of consciousness: July + Arizona = VERY hot. but it's actually alright, for i was a reptile in my past life, i think, having inherited an extreme tolerance for warm (and aversion to cold) climates from my mom. 

I've acquired quite a few lovely pictures as well, a few of which you deserve to see immediately:
   


Tucson has some of the most beautiful sunsets i've ever seen...and the best breakfast burritos i've ever eaten.
The people of the program are also really nice: our grad student advisers are friendly, the faculty organizers are all brilliant, and the fellow students are very outgoing. True to my personality, there really isnt anyone in the program that i dont get along with. Hopefully, there will be a chance to do some traveling next weekend, in which case i would be torn between an excursion to 1. the Grand Canyon, 2. Rocky Point (the closest/only beach for tucsonians, over the mexican border), or 3. Las Vegas (for which i've a surprisingly little desire to see, but much of the group seems to be leaning towards it, if given the choice...). None of this may pan out, since there is already a trip scheduled for that weekend, to go to Kitt Peak Observatory (which is apparently rather famous) that weekend. However, with the current brush fire warnings keeping everyone on their toes, there's the possibility that it will be canceled. who knows?

in the meanwhile... today's GRE-word-of-the-day: Altercation (N.): noisy quarrel; heated dispute. ex. "In that hot-tempered household, no meal ever came to a peaceful conclusion; the inevitable altercation sometimes even finished in blows." (courtesy of Barron's vocab lists!)

So, a former Bryn Mawr alumna (class of ‘78) sent out an email to mawrtyrs here in Paris, this semester, asking if anyone would be available to baby-sit this evening. Being extremely down on cash, of course I jumped at said email, and being a Bryn Mawr student, she didn’t bat an eyelash at saying yes. (yay for BMC contacts, at the very least)

 

In retrospect, it was a truly priceless experience.

 

I make it to the address at 5pm, as asked. Wherein the mother shakes my hand, waves in the direction of the livingroom couch (as means of introducing me to her 11-yr old son), held up the box of tortellini I was to cook for dinner, shows me the list of emergency/contact numbers on the fridge… and breezes out the door.

 

Get to sit on the couch with Eric and watch him play DS MarioKart, before heading out for a quick walk to pick up his 5-yr old sister, Emily, from gymnastics. All goes well for a while—we start playing hide-and-go-seek—but such peace was not destined to last.

 

Eric trips and falls in his (unnecessary) overenthusiasm during the game, severely bruising the top of his right foot and depriving us of not only of our activity. I help him hobble over to the couch, set him to icing and elevating the foot (which is starting to swell like a goose egg, and probably hurt like hell), and debate the idea of giving him the painkiller cream & meds that he requested. Convinced him to wait an hour until his dad came home, so I wouldn’t have to deal with that responsibility… but now needed to find a common activity to entertain a bouncy young girl and a young boy in pain, who technically wasn’t allowed to play any more videogames for the day.

 

Try finding a card/boardgame to satisfy them both, and fail with that (Emily wants to color). Desperate measures pushed me to break the “as little television as possible” rule, and set them to watching an hour-long kids’ video, to give me a chance to make dinner. Dad comes home, giving me a short moment of rest and aid in easing Eric’s pain. But then he leaves, and I proceed to burn my left ring finger with the boiling water, and am forced to fight a loosing battle with Emily to get her to eat her dinner (since she’d had a “carnival” at school that day, she wasn’t exceptionally hungry).

 

After dinner, Eric loses himself in the DS, and I haven’t the heart to tell him he’s not supposed to be on it…after all, it was probably the best way to distract him from the pain of his foot. Besides Emily wanted to play hairdresser, and I had my hands full of the squirming bundle of child, who’s main goal seemed to be to make my life as difficult as possible. She won’t sit still to let me braid her hair (for which she’s asked), and she orders me about alternating between French and English (did I mention the kids are bilingual?). Then, to add to the fun, she becomes fascinated by my breasts, which are significantly larger than her mother’s… so here I am, wrestling with a 5-yr old pipsqueak who’s trying to pull off my clothes right there in the livingroom, attempting to reason with her (again, in French and English) why my pants and shirt and underwear should NOT come off so that she could compare anatomies, and praying all the while that her poor prepubescent brother, trapped on the couch by his foot, is too involved in his gameboy to notice the conversation.

 

Crowning glory of the evening, the mother is about 40 minutes late to coming home, so I don’t get home until 10 (instead of 9pm, as anticipated)... Incredible.


[Slight amendment, as of 10:00 AM the next morning... imagine a very indignant voice...]

...and. AND. their floor gave me a splinter in the pad of my big toe!!! i just spent the past 15 minutes digging it out with a needle!!

Annie and i decided that this weekend would be ideal to up and take a small trip to the Loire, to visit some of the chateaux, before the weather got warm enough for tourist season to begin—which would invariably mean thousands of people and mucho-elevated prices.

 

So, we planned it all very well, and ended up training all around, Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. The 2-hr train from Paris’s Gare Austerlitz wasn’t bad at all, but taking at 7:22 AM was a bit of a struggle, since it was across town from our houses and meant we had to wake up around 5AM. Needless to say, I was deranged that morning...

 

But the trip was great: we got to Tours (the hub city of the region, known unsurprisingly as the “Touraine”), sorted things out within an hour, and started off with another train to Amboise, to see its charming chateau and the Clos-Lucé (the chateau & garden estate where Leonadro Da Vinci spent the last few years of his life, now a charming museum and whatnot). We then trained it up to Blois, saw the chateau there (a gorgeous blend of 16^th-19^th century architecture, with gorgeous stairs), then figured out the town’s bus system, to get to the hostel for the night... where we were the only occupants. Creepy, because it was a giant bunker-room built with maybe 40 beds.

 

Early wakeup, to head back to the center of town and train it to Tours & then Chenanceau. Which was incredible. The pictures can’t even do it justice:

 

...and the gardens:

The inside was pretty great, too, for the record.

 

Went to eat good food, then took the train down to Azay-le-Rideau, where we had a hilarious adventure. The train station was in the deserted middle of nowhere, and ended up being a 30-minute walk to the chateau and any sort of normal-looking civilization. Fun times J (and if you know me well, you know I’m not kidding—I had a great time with Annie, and that random walk past deserted buildings).

Azay was charming (duh), and i'm sure the town is lots of fun if you're there during high tourist season... i.e., there're actually people around. But it was a great adventure, AND we got into the chateau for free. Major plus.

After more adventures to get back to/onto the train, we ended up back in Tours, and dropped our stuff off at our room in the hostel (sweet). Then we braved the slightly soggy weather to wander around the old part of town in search of a delicious dinner... which was amazing, despite the fact that I should clearly never again be allowed to split a bottle of wine with one other person. An hour and two dessert crepes later, we got back to the hotel, and had the most merciful spring-forward daylight savings’ night of my life.

 

Sunday morning, had breakfast at the hostel, then wandered around to be overwhelmed by more delicious food—a giant indoor market with everything delicious (and, unfortunately, some things not so delicious, like whole dead rabbits on display). Stopped by a specialty Chocolatier shop before going to tour the Musée de Beaux-Arts for an hour (which, if you need a recommendation, is a perfectly delightful museum and I highly suggest it), along with the giant cathedral and remnants of the Basilisque de St. Martin (from the 4^th century... even the French have to admit, that’s old).

 

I do believe that Chenanceau was my favorite, but because of the animals (here’s Annie, having a staring contest with an animal that we couldn’t decide whether it was a donkey, a mule, or something else):

  
 

... but the fun of Azay-le-Rideau was pretty great, too. And I wouldn’t trade the trip for anything—I shall gain 5 pounds and have a heart attack from this one single pastry that I bought at a patisserie, alone, called la Pêche. Annie took a picture of it for me, but I have to wait until I can get a picture to go along with it... but it was way worth it J.

 

Overall, a great weekend adventure.