Progress. I think.

So yesterday was a full day. It started with giving oral exams to a class of my students at the Small School. I took them in pairs and had them talk about/present an unethical activity for 10 minutes. It was not so bad really. Some were interesting, like the ones about abortion, prostitution or euthanasia. Some were dry, like the ones on using office supplies for personal use, but they did well overall.

After the exams I met with my supervisor. We talked about the person taking over for me next week with the start of the semester, but he needs to sort his schedule out so it looks like I will be teaching here until the end of February. Oh well, the extra money won't hurt. Much. She also mentioned that she is meeting with the student that complained about my letting classes out early. What...come on people. I spoke with the kid, it's settled. She is going to meet with him though. Who knows what will come out of his mouth. At first I thought "oh no, what if he complains more and I get fired?" Then I thought..."I wish" and moved on to "Ah, it's France. Virtually impossible to fire someone here. I think." Who knows. I refuse to be upset about it any longer.

So I should be done with all my jobs in March and ready for our move back to Texas. Which we still have no idea what that is going to happen. If we end up here through May I am going to see if I can continue at the Big School, I really enjoy those classes. We had a class last night and it went really well. I actually enjoyed the class and we ran over the time! Crazy what a syllabus can do for a teacher...

The day ended with a quick dinner with my friend K from London and then we went to see the moving Twilight. Yes...I am a lemming and have read the books. And I thought the movie was fantastic! I thought they did a great job reflecting what was in the books. Though there is a good possibility I am biased because I read the books so I know everything already. I don't know if the movie stands well on it's own, but after the book I thought it was it was great. Jacob is smokin...along with all the vamps of course...and I was really impressed with the girl who plays Bella, I thought she did a great job.

This morning I was all ready to visit my friend Marie and her daughter. Her daughter likes to practice her English and is really sweet. I was looking forward to it. I grab my keys and get to the car but am having some difficulties with the GPS. It's falling all over the place, has come unplugged and is seemingly smeared with olive oil because I keep dropping it. A very 1990's Chevy Chase couple of minutes. I ended up pulling over right as I got out of the garage and got the Inspector Clouseau moment under control. Then I thought I remembered something sounding funny as I drove out of our parking garage. I decided to take a look. Sure enough...front driver's side tire is completely flat. Not a breath of air in that puppy.

Uh. No big deal, I'll just put the old girl back in the garage and go make some coffee. I back up and am prepared to break the rules of driving (see how well integrated I have become!) by entering the garage the wrong way. Oops, there is a car coming out. It's being driven by the man who was standing outside our spot glaring at me because I had, temporarily I'm sure, lost the ability to see through concrete and I didn't know he was waiting to walk behind me. I smile sheepishly and pull the car out of his way. In retrospect I should have rolled the window down and yelled; "Hi yall!" in my best East Texas accent. I say East Texas because I have family there and, in my humble but I am sure correct opinion, they have the best accents in all of Texas. (Shout out to S., S. and Aunt H!)

After blocking the street (twice) with my flailing while holding my breath skillful three point turn and pulling in the lot up the exit ramp successfully, I came back home and decided to let you all know how my week was going. Not too bad really. Though I do hate that we might have to buy new tires right before we friggin leave the country. What a waste of money. If gas were cheap I would make sure to drive a lot and use up our (soon to be) new tires, but at over $7 a gallon I don't know if that will happen. BUT...I am having a visitor in March so we will be doing some driving for sure!! Yeah!!! My friend Shari is going too come over for a week and has already bought her ticket. It's perfect timing since I might be done with work at that time.

Well, I'm off to see if I can watch Obama's inauguration speech from yesterday!