Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone – and also give you a little update, since I haven’t done that in a while.

So last night I cooked some turkey and mashed potatoes (thanks to the kitchen utensils of Hollie, actually) – and Hollie, who is British, Esther, who is Swiss, and Gabriella, who is Swedish all came to have dinner. Hollie also made a beautiful trifle for dessert, and I made everyone say what she is thankful for. It was a really good night – I really enjoyed it, and it was sort of like having my own mini Thanksgiving celebration. Also yesterday I received a package full of Christmas presents (food) from my parents… so that was a pretty wonderful surprise. 

Tomorrow I am going to Colmar to have a Thanksgiving meal with the family of a girl I know from a class. Her father is American and is actually from Indiana – so she invited me to their Thanksgiving celebration, which is really cool. I’m definitely excited to see a French/American Thanksgiving!

The Christmas markets start today in Strasbourg – apparently this is a very big deal, and people come from all over France and Europe to see Strasbourg’s Christmas markets. So I think I will go into the center of the city this afternoon to see everything that is going on today. I’ve heard that there are chandeliers in the streets and little vendors basically everywhere – so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it.

There have been many talks about having a student strike and blocking the university to send a message to the French government. Apparently they are trying to pass a law right now that will make the universities in France no longer financed by the French government, but rather by large companies. The problem is, companies which can afford to finiance the universities will probably be medical/scientific/pharmaceutical companies who will therefore give money to the natural sciences, pharmacy schools etc. and there will be no support for the humanities. Also, they are trying to eliminate certain master programs (in the humanities) in order to save money, because the government feels that these masters are rather useless in the long run. As you can imagine, there has been quite a large response by the students, but they haven’t actually started to block the university here in Strasbourg yet. We shall see what happens…   

I found out that I will be in Rouen for Christmas, so I’m pretty excited to see Normandy – I haven’t been there yet.

Tag thing

So, my friend Ashley tagged me in this blog game thing, and apparently now I have to write 5 interesting things about myself and then tag 3 more people. Soooooo, let’s see if I can come up with 5 interesting things about myself….

1. I have a pretty close relationship with sleep. When I was born I had to have surgery and stay in the hospital for several weeks, and consequently my parents were told that I would probably cry and cause problems when they took me home because I was only used to living beneath neon lights… Well, the first night they put me down and I slept all the way until morning, no interruptions. And thus the tradition was established. I am a total grump without sleep, and I can usually manage to take naps no matter where I am.

2. I have a very active dream life. (hmmmmm…. I’m starting to see a pattern here) My most vivid dreams are usually one extreme or the other, happy or scary, but I tend to remember my dreams quite often even if they aren’t terribly significant. Sometimes I have dreams in which characters from different stages or areas of my life will all appear at once… for  example, there might be a family member of mine (early stage, or Ohio) and someone from high school (that stage in the middle, Newburgh) and a friend from Purdue all in the same dream. This sort of dream usually perplexes me for several days. So, that’s just one example of the many sorts of dreams I have. I am really fascinated by dreams, and I feel that my dreams are really important… So if you ever want to make my day, start a conversation with me about dreams.  

3. I tried to learn how to play the guitar last summer, but I wasn’t terribly successful. And now I think I’ve forgotten all that I had learned. But I really enjoy it, so I think I will try to pick it up again when I come back to the States.

4. I have issues with the American education system as it is right now… I think that we need to have much better teacher preparation courses in Universities and make this path of study more difficult. As it is, I know a lot of people who really have no desire to be a teacher and who really don’t have a passion for working with kids, but they just fall into the education program because they can’t succeed in the programs they started in. Anyway, I want to be a teacher and help kids become culturally aware of the world around them, help them to start thinking a little more critically in general… and teach them French of course.

5. Well, I’m not sure what else to say… I’m having a pretty cool adventure here in France. I learn so much every day, and I’m so glad I decided to do this, even if it is very hard sometimes.

 Now I’m supposed to tag three people, but I can only think of two people to tag…

so I tag Dave (banannery.wordpress.com) and Amanda (amandajean.wordpress.com)

Winter

It got dark at 4 pm today. There are busy Strasbourg electricity workers all around the city putting up lights and Christmas trees. I only have about 5 and a half more weeks until the semester is over… oh la la

Paris photos

Well, I think you all know what this is.

Notre Dame de Paris… you just can’t get tired of taking pictures of this church.

Yes, I just had to go to Starbucks.