Les Vacances

1. Officially on vacation for the next two weeks. Merci, French school holidays.
2. Family arrives in two days. I cannot express how happy this makes me.
3. I have old lady hands. Thanks, Parisian snow.
4. Moving to the Montsouris apartment next Thursday. Sent my landlord notice but have not heard from him.
5. Tonight is quiche and tarts on Rue Mouffetard with the friends followed by some kind of warm beverage. Wandering would be on the schedule, but the cold and the snow are cramping my Parisian style.
6. If a French boy throws a snowball at you, it means he likes you. However, that does not make it any less annoying. Or actually creepy, since it reminded me of Beer Can Dude. If I can go a week without having some random guy throw something at me I'll be pleased.
7. I applied to NYU.
8. And Wisconsin at Madison.
9. It turns out that children are really difficult to teach the day before vacation. Who knew?
10. I had a moment today, in the hallway, between classes, when a bunch of kids filed past me and wanted to know how to say things in English, and kept saying, "Hay-lo, Meg-ann, Meg-ann, hay-lo, are you teaching us today?" and for a minute, I kind of got it. For a moment, I really felt like this is what I want to do. I think I might want to be a teacher after all.
11.  One of my coworkers gave me a ride to the train station. She's middle-aged and has kids my age, and is always really nice to me.  On the way to the gare, we talked about her bricolage (DIY) projects and the history of France and our holiday plans, and when she dropped me off, she said, "Megan, I really enjoyed talking to you. It's always very interesting. Let's continue our conversation after the vacation. Bonne Noel!" This might not seem like much, but when you're living alone in Paris, it can sometimes feel like a really cold place (figuratively), so you've got to store up moments like that. As I made my way to the train back to Paris, as people hurried past me and I checked my watch, I felt just a little warmer, despite the cold.
12. Putting on several hundred more layers, then hopping on the metro.