Weekend Trip to London!

This past weekend, I went to London to visit my friend, Ollie, who I met sophomore year at UGA. It was my first time in London and I was grateful to have a guide :).

On Friday, I arrived at Heathrow airport around 6 40pm. Ollie met me at the airport and the first stop was a fish and chips place! Shockingly enough, it was a rainy evening. 

Fish and Chips with a fruity drink!

After that tasty meal, we went to a pub for a pint. It was pretty crowded inside this pub, so it was difficult to find seats. Luckily for us, this older guy walked up to us and let us know that he was leaving, so that we could have his table. So polite! Just how I always imagined the English, lol. So, I was not really surprised when this happened, but Ollie sure was! Haha! He said that this is not common… 

London Pub

That night, we watched a French-Spanish movie called, “L’Auberge Espagnole.” This movie was about a group of European roommates who share an apartment in Barcelona for one year. It was a pretty interesting movie, but a different style than American films that’s for sure. 

Saturday was the busiest day out the weekend. It all started in the most English way possible, with an English Breakfast. This breakfast was so tasty! I had sausage, bacon (real yummy english bacon), egg, beans, and buttered toast.

Mmmmmm so good!

After that grand meal, I was ready to see London! The first stop was the Tower of London. It is not a tower like the name suggests, but rather a fortress and castle. It’s got lots of towers and different buildings. I really enjoyed exploring this historic place! I got to see the Crown Jewels which was a highlight of the visit. These royals have/had some serious bling. 

Tower of London

At Tower of London, look the sun! 

Something else that I thought was interesting, was that the king had different exotic animals (lions, monkeys, polar bear, etc.) in and about the castle. Enjoy the interesting animal facts in the picture below:

Interesting...

While walking around outside, I saw the Tower Bridge, which is not far at all from the Tower of London. I also saw some sunlight today which was exciting!

Tower Bridge

After seeing the tower of London, we walked around, and funny enough, we walked past a building that was almost made for me ;). It's just missing one letter...

My place in London, no big deal

Next, we went to the Buckingham Palace. It was cool to see the balcony where the Kate and William had their famous kiss on their wedding day! It’s a shame that I didn’t get to see any royals, but perhaps next time.

Famous Balcony

In front of Buckingham Palace

Next we walked from the palace to a fancy shop called: Fortnum and Mason. On the way though, it started to rain pretty heavy. It even hailed a little bit! The wind was super strong as well! Luckily, we made it inside Fortnum and Mason, where we wandered until the rainstorm had passed. There at the shop, I bought some Ceylon Orange Pekoe tea!

Tower of Tea

After the rain let up, we walked around some more. We walked to Piccadilly Circus, which is a famous square in London. Near there, I went to a souvenir shop and bought some postcards, a little Big Ben, and a mug :). Next, we went to check out M&M world. I have never seen so many M&M type things. There was even a man giving out M&Ms to people.

M&M World

We were getting pretty hungry at this point, so we thought we would go to Five Guys (so we could reminisce about downtown Athens times) but the line was so long! We decided it wasn’t worth it to wait around in the cold, so we decided to go to another place called: Ed’s. It was a very nice diner which reminded me of steak and shake. I had a burger, fries, onion rings, cole slaw, and an Oreo milkshake! Sooo yummy, but so much food!

Diner dinner

After that filling dinner, we went to Trafalgar Square. There, I got to see the huge lion statues (which looked pretty similar to the Lion statues on Barcelona). 

With a Lion

Next, we went to the Tate Modern which is an Art Museum. First, we saw a beautiful view of London at night. After enjoying the view, we visited an art exhibition of the artist named Paul Klee as well as other art galleries. 

view from the Tate Modern

After viewing some art, we headed back to take the tube back home. On the way, we passed by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre!

Globe Theatre

Once we took the tube, we ended up taking a red London double decker bus! It was exciting to take one and to sit on the second floor! I even heard people speaking Polish on the bus, which was cool! In fact I heard Polish throughout this weekend and it was nice to hear it again.

Saturday night, we watched an English film called Notting Hill. This romantic comedy featured Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. This film helped get me in the London spirit and I really want to visit Notting Hill next time!

On Sunday morning, we had planned to go to a market in Camden, but it was raining heavily when we got up. We ended up changing our plans a bit, and we ended up exploring the British Museum while we waited for the rain to clear up. After touring that museum for a bit, we met up with another girl who went to UGA named Jeannette. She was so nice and friendly! It was nice hanging out with another fellow Georgian :). The three of us spent the afternoon together.

We went on the London Eye together. It drizzled a little, but once we got to the top, it seemed to have stopped for a bit. We got some decent pictures from the top! The entire ride was about 30 minutes long and it was a great way to see the city. 

Ollie, Jeannette, and I

Next, we got close to Big Ben (which I recently learned is actually the name of the bell) and Parliament (Palace of Westminster). We also saw Westminster Abbey which is where the royals get married!

Westminster Abbey

I had been on a mission to find a red telephone booth that had a clear view of Big Ben in the distance (because I saw a postcard at a shop with this image earlier) and luckily for me, I ended up finding it! :) 

This pictures captures London so well :P

Then, we took the tube to an Asian restaurant called, the Hare and Tortoise. It was pretty good! I had Chicken Lo Mein. After our lunch, we went to a Cider Tap and I enjoyed a really yummy Apples and Pears cider! 

Cider choices

After a nice chat and some cider, we went to King’s Cross Station. There, we went to Platform 9 3/4! It was so exciting!! There was even someone there who let you wear a scarf of your choice (from one of the four houses) and they threw the scarf up for you for your picture so that it looks like you are really going through to Hogwarts! Such an awesome experience! There was also a lady who took your photo, but you could have friends take it as well. 

Off to Hogwarts! 

After that, we said goodbye to Jeannette because she was meeting friend at the station. Next, we went to the Harry Potter 9 3/4 shop where I got a little Hedwig, a chocolate covered frog, and Harry Potter Jelly Beans. It was so surreal being in Kings Cross Station and I am so glad I got to experience it!

Once I got over all the Harry Potter excitement, we took the tube home. Ollie’s family was so kind as to make a roast dinner. The roast dinner was, shall I say, lovely. We had roast chicken, roast potatoes, gravy, a puree, broccoli/cauliflower, and Yorkshire puddings! I really enjoyed the meal and conversations with everyone. After dinner, we watched an English classic, called: “Four Wedding and a Funeral.” Hugh Grant also starred in this film, and so did Rowan Atkinson. 

On Monday, I had some tea and my first crumpet (sort of like an english muffin in the US) with raspberry jam for breakfast. Then, I took the tube to Heathrow for my afternoon flight. I had a delicious chicken sandwich and fries at the airport. I even heard some of the waitresses speaking polish to one another. I think I will miss hearing people speak polish around town. At about 2pm I boarded my flight to Lyon, and I ended up having a whole row to myself. I sat by the window and enjoyed the view. 

Sunny flight back to France

Overall, I had an awesome weekend with Ollie, his family, and his dogs! I can’t thank Ollie and his family enough for being so hospitable. I hope to see them all again sometime soon! :)

Enjoyed London and can’t wait to visit again, 

Magdalena

Teaching Week 12 and First Week Teaching Grown-ups!

So this week, I came up with even more activities which were based on the Hungry Caterpillar book. This book is seriously a great intro to so many lessons! 

I also had my first grown-ups english class this week!

In the younger classes, I taught them about the days of the week and about how the week starts on Sunday on US calendars. In France, the week starts with Monday. As I was explaining this distinction, one kid raises his hand and says, “so if Sunday is the first day of the week, then kids go to school on Sundays?” lol. I also taught the young kids an easy days of the week song, which is basically just singing the days of the week in order. The teacher liked the simple song, and he even recorded me singing it so that the students could listen to it later on to hear my proper pronunciation. Another activity I did with the younger kids, was that I reviewed what the caterpillar ate each day of the week through a little game. I put each day of the week up, and under each day, I randomly put pictures of the food that the caterpillar ate from the story. The kids had to say the name of a food, tell me which day it was under, and they had to tell me the correct day that the food should be moved to. This activity went pretty well.

For a few of the older classes, I reviewed the days of the week and hungry caterpillar story in more complex ways. In one class, I wrote the days of the week on the board, and had the students retell what the caterpillar ate each day. Sometimes, I would change the question and I would ask them to tell me which day the caterpillar ate a certain food. I also asked them the questions out of order, which made the activity a bit more challenging. Then, I would write each food on the board under the corresponding day. I also had one class sort the pictures into three groups: fruits, vegetables, and other. After they sorted them, they had to label them. Another fun activity that I did with the older kids was to have them complete a table with different foods as I said them aloud. The kids were given a table with two names written in a column and the days of the week written in a row. The kids had to listen as I told them who ate what food, and which day they ate it. The kids all had little pictures of the food that they placed on their charts as we went along. I had students  repeat the sentences, and I even had them create the sentences. I would have them come up to me and I would show them on my answer key which day, person, and food, I wanted them to say. This activity worked out quite well and I was very pleased with it. 

On Tuesday, I had some lunch at the high school with Kate. The meal was good. It seems to surprise me every time. This time, I tried rabbit, which tasted pretty nice; it tasted like chicken. Unfortunately, I grabbed a piece which seemed to have some of the organs still inside it… I tried what I think was kidneys and it did not taste good. The chocolate pudding was super yummy though so that made up for it.

The mushroom sauce the rabbit was in was really good as well!

On Tuesday evening, I had my first Adult english class. I was a little intimidated at first, bit it ended up going pretty well! Only 7 out of 12 of my students showed up. First, I showed a short powerpoint about my life. Then, we played a name game where each person had to choose an adjective that described them that also started with the first letter of their name. I prepared a list of adjectives for them to choose from so it would make the game easier. Then, we went around in a circle and everyone had to introduce themselves, and everyone who had introduced themselves before them. Luckily, it wasn’t too difficult because there were only 7 people. Through this activity, they learned each other’s names as well as a few new words! Next, we played "Two Truths and a Lie." Some of the adults didn’t seem to get that the point was to make it hard to tell the lie from the two truths…lol. One lady said that she lived on the moon, another said that she was a master of english, and another said that she was 20 years old (she was an older lady). After that game, we played, “Never Have I Ever.” This game was good because we got to learn more about each other. Some of the people came up with some interesting things… “Never have I ever…been in a car accident, wore glasses before the age of 40, dyed my hair, been afraid of spiders.” Next, I had the adults complete a questionnaire that I designed in order to gauge their level of english. I also wanted to know what they expected out of this class and why they decided to take it. These adults are all primary school teachers around the area, so of course they want to better their english so that they can teach their students. The majority seemed to really want to improve their english so that they could use it when traveling, and so that they could communicate with other english speakers. 

On Thursday, I got a few little presents from some of my students :). They are so sweet!

Little gifts from some students!

Love teaching these kids,

Magdalena

Sporty Weekend in Roanne

On Friday, I got to sleep in. Later on in the day, I did some lesson planning. I stopped by my inspector’s office in the afternoon, because they have added on an extra class for me this semester. Now, I am required to teach a group of adults english for two hours every Tuesday night… I am pretty nervous about starting this class because I do not have much experience teaching adults. I am used to having classes full of kids, so this will be a big change. At first, I thought I was the only one who was getting extra classes added, but luckily another friend of mine has to do the same thing! It has been nice having someone to plan with and talk to about this adult class. I am hoping for the best, and I will let y’all know how the first class goes!

On Saturday night, we had a game night at Jack’s and Camilo’s place. It was really fun to hang out all the other assistants. Clare and Melissa came into town for it, and we all had fun playing cranium together! Clare also brought an amazing lemon cake for the occasion. It was so delicious!

On Sunday, I went to mass with Melissa, and we actually saw some young (probably high school or college-aged) people there! It was a nice change. After mass, I did some more lesson planning. Later in the afternoon, Kate, Kim, Melissa, and I met up with Jack and Camilo for some badminton. I have not played in forever, so it took me a while to get warmed up, but after a while, I improved :). We all played each other and kept track of who won each match. Kim was the badminton champ for that afternoon! I hope that we can continue to play badminton more often because it is fun and it is a nice workout.

On Monday, Kate and I went swimming for the first time at the pool in Roanne! 

Roanne Pool

It was really nice to go for a swim and it was great exercise. They have some fancy lockers in the locker room where you have to use a machine to select a locker, then you have to create a 4 digit password, and then you close your locker. When you want to open your locker, you have to write your locker number and password in the machine, and your locker pops open! Pretty fancy.

lots of lockers

After our swim, we realized we had some time to spare before the bus came to take us back home, so we walked around a little. We came across this stream and little playground. We played a bit on the playground before returning back to the bus stop. 

Very full stream

Playing at the playground

Kate playing at the playground

Once we got home, I had lunch, showered, and continued to plan some lessons. For dinner tonight, our upstairs neighbors (rugby players) cooked for us. It turned out really good and it was nice to have a meal with them.

Chicken, salsa, rice, and sauce. Yummy!!

Well-fed, and ready to start this next week of teaching,

Magdalena

Teaching Week 11 and Cooking Successes

This week was busier than most. At the schools this week, I mostly continued teaching lessons based on the Hungry Caterpillar book. In my Skype class, the kids were given pieces of paper which had parts of the story written on them. As I reread the book, the kids had to put the parts of the story in order. Then, I gave them different directions, such as circle/underline certain words in the story (e.g. the days of the week). 

On Tuesday, I taught one class a lot of winter vocabulary because they are going skiing in a few weeks. In another class, I showed them a short powerpoint with images of Atlanta and Atlanta attractions. I showed them one picture of the Atlanta skyline and they thought it was New York... lol. I guess they think that only New York has skyscrapers. After the presentation, kids came up to me and asked me when I was going back to the US, because they wanted to come with me :). 

In the afternoon, I had lunch at the high school which was good as usual.

Some kind of fish, veggies, salad, and chocolate muffin

In the evening, I went to my host family’s house for dinner. We had a tartiflette. It was so yummy and pretty easy to make! All you need are potatoes, lardons (pieces of diced bacon), onions, white wine, and reblochon cheese. First, you need to boil whole potatoes for maybe 10-15 minutes (you don’t want to cook them all the way). As the potatoes are cooking, you chop up an onion and then fry the pieces in some olive oil. Next, add the lardons to the onions. Cook that together for a few minutes and then turn off the heat. Then, peel and cut the potatoes long ways into thin slices. Cut the reblochon cheese into two (cut it horizontally through the middle) and place one piece in the bottom of a round glass pan. Then, place a layer of potatoes on top of the cheese. Next, put some lardons and onion on the potatoes. After that, make another layer of potatoes, then add more lardons and onions. Then, add a third layer of potatoes, and cover with the other half of the cheese. Finally, pour some white wine until it’s about halfway up the glass pan. Then, put it in the oven at about 350F or 180C for about 45-60minutes. After it’s done baking, it is ready to eat! My host family told me that it is a typical wintertime dish here. For dessert, we made Roses des Sables. This was very delicious and easy to make as well. All you need is baking chocolate, corn flakes, sugar, and shortening (I can’t remember the french name for this but it resembled shortening). (I have to check with my host mom about the amounts of each ingredient… I will add that in later.) You melt this piece of shortening in a pot, then add chocolate and sugar. Then, you let it cool. Once it’s cool, you add the corn flakes and mix it. Next, you prepare a baking tray with wax paper. You spoon out the chocolatey corn flake mix on the tray and then put it in the fridge for an hour or 2 until it’s solidified. Then, it is ready to eat! 

On Wednesday, I had to teach the younger grades, because the older two classes (4th and 5th graders) were off skiing for the week. So, I just did some Hungry Caterpillar activities with them. I read them the story, we reviewed days of the week, and food vocabulary. With the younger grades, I went over the whole story with them on the board by putting up pictures of all the food the caterpillar ate under the correct days of the week.

In the evening, I went to the movies with my roomies, and some other assistants in Roanne. We saw the movie, The Wolf on Wall Street. It was interesting but it was dubbed… it was strange hearing Leonardo DiCaprio and the other actors speaking french. It was a long film (about 3 hours long) and it’s definitely not a movie for kids… Anyways, the movie theater here is really nice and big!

Roanne is a small town but it's got a big movie theater!

On Thursday, I also taught the Hungry Caterpillar, but I had to make it a bit more difficult for the older grades. After I read, I had them retell the story, and then put all of the food the caterpillar ate in order. They also had to write out the names of all of the food next to the pictures so that they could start learning how to spell them. Then, I asked all of them about which foods they liked and disliked from the story. In my Thursday afternoon class, we reviewed the story, and I had the kids color a coloring page with all the food that the caterpillar ate but they had to listen to my directions as I told them what to color, and the color to use. Often, I would tell them that they could choose the color of the item, and then I would go around, and ask them to tell me what color(s) they selected for the item. In this activity, we reviewed colors, food vocabulary, and oral comprehension. One student used highlighters to color some of the food, so I taught him the word “neon” so he could describe his colors more accurately. I also taught them how to say, “multicolored” for things that they had colored many colors. The kids thought it was cool to learn those new words! 

In the afternoon, I made up my own recipe for banana fritters because I had two old bananas that I wanted to use up. I just mashed the bananas, added some flour, cinammon, and sugar… then I fried them. To my surprise, they turned out alright. 

Thursday night, I cooked dinner for my roommates. I made them krokiety which is a polish dish. They are basically rolled crepes with different fillings that are fried in breadcrumbs. I made them mushroom krokiety and they turned out pretty good! This was my first time making them all by myself!

Krokiety and salad

After a rainy day, the sky turned pretty as the sun set

Looking forward to a chill weekend,

Magdalena

Party in St. Etienne, Trivial Pursuit and Soldes in Lyon

Friday afternoon, Kate, Kim, and I ate at the high school for the first time since the holiday break. It was good as usual. I loved the veggies, but the veal was just ok.

My roommates and I had a pretty busy weekend. We took a train to St. Etienne on Friday evening to hang out with some other assistants. We had dinner together and then stayed for a double birthday celebration. After hanging out at the apartment, we all went out. I really had a great time with everyone and it was so nice to dance, and listen to some good music. It was really great to see the St. Etienne assistants again and I hope to be back there again soon!

Saturday morning, we took a train from St. Etienne to Lyon. Once in Lyon, we ate some crepes for lunch at a nice restaurant in Vieux Lyon. I got a crepe with bacon, ground beef, onion, and tomatoes. 

yummy crepe

Kate and I in Lyon

After we got some energy, we decided to check out the sales (which are called Soldes in French) in all of the stores. We got tired pretty quickly though and there were so many people around! We ended up stopping by a few stores and we even saw some street musicians. One guy was really good. He played music on pots and pans.

Street Musician in Lyon

After a bit of shopping, we went to hang at Tony’s place. We did some grocery shopping for dinner, and then we ended up watching a strange Russian movie about a group of people who were trapped in the subway…

Once the movie finished, we prepared a nice Bolognaise dinner and ate together with Tony and his friends. After dinner, we played french Trivial Pursuit. It was a pretty challenging game… the questions were tough. In the middle of the game, we decided to start making up questions for each other and that went much better. I actually ended up doing pretty well; I got first place :). Overall, it was a very chill and fun night. 

On Sunday morning, we got a train back to Roanne. We thought that we might come close to missing the train, but we ended up on the train about 10 minutes before it’s departure. We always seem to cut it close when it comes to trains, but we haven’t missed one yet! Anyways, the rest of the day was pretty relaxing. I did some lesson planning for this upcoming week. 

On Monday, Kate and I took a bus to the big Carrefour to do some grocery shopping. We also went to a Sports store which was nearby. I bought a swimsuit which was on sale! :) Kate and I are hopefully going to start going to the swimming pool in Roanne soon! 

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. I watched some french TV for the first time in months. I watched this show called, Tellement Vrai, which seems to be France’s version of True Life. Then I worked on some more lesson plans and had yummy fajitas for dinner. Tonight, I also watched a movie with my roomies called: The Place Beyond the Pines. It was an interesting film, rather long, with a story that followed a motorcycle stuntman who started robbing banks to try to provide for his son. The police get involved, and one policeman in particular is followed as he moves on in his career and life. I won’t give away any more, but if you like Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling, then you will probably enjoy this movie. :)

Tomorrow it’s back to work,

Magdalena 

Teaching Week 10: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Lessons

Alrighty, well the first week back teaching went pretty well! I was a little tired though this week because I am still getting used to the time change. 

The first thing I taught all of the kids was how to say “Happy New Year!” 

The main lessons that I prepared for this week revolved around the book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This book reviews the days of the week, food vocabulary, and the lifecycle of a butterfly. I differentiated my lessons based on the ages of the students. The oldest kids were given slips of paper with words and pictures from the story, and when they heard the words, they had to show the pictures to the class. In this way, the kids payed more attention to the story, and reviewed the vocabulary. After reading the story, I asked the students questions about what happened in the story. Next, I gave the kids a worksheet where they had to recreate the story. They had to cut out pictures of what the caterpillar ate, and they had to put the images in order of what the caterpillar ate each day of the week. I also asked them questions about what foods from the story they like and don’t like to eat. 

I read the same book to the younger kids, and this time the lesson was a lot more guided. After each page, I checked for comprehension by having a student retell in French what I had read in English. I also did a lot of gestures while reading to help them understand words like: hungry, and stomachache. Then, as a class, we completed the worksheet and put the food that the caterpillar ate in order. With some of the more advanced younger grades, I reread the story and had them complete their worksheets alone as I read. 

Here are the little worksheets that I found online for this activity:

I also passed out little Hershey’s chocolate to all of the students. They all liked the chocolate, and they thought it was cool to try something from the US! :)

So, this year, I am trying to be more adventurous with my meals, so for dinner this week I made something new! I found a recipe online for Shrimp, Tomato, and Basil Pasta. It was pretty easy to make and it turned out pretty good! Here’s the link for those of you who are curious: 

http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/shrimp-tomato-basil-pasta-recipe-mslo0611

Also, this week, I bought a King Cake (galette des rois) and inside is a little figurine and whoever finds it in their slice is the King or Queen for the day! 

It even came with a crown! 

So happy I don’t work on Fridays,

Magdalena

Airport Adventures and Home for the Holidays

On December 20th, I started the long journey home. I woke up about 6am that morning. I took a bus to the train station because I had a train to Lyon at about 8am. Once I got to  Lyon, I took a shuttle to the airport. Once at the airport, I took a plane to Paris. That flight was about an hour late, so I was worried that I would miss my next flight from Paris to Atlanta. Luckily for me, my second plane was about four hours delayed so I didn’t have to worry about missing that flight...

View from the plane on the way to Paris

People reading, sleeping, and chilling while waiting for the plane in Paris

In the big plane, I got a window seat and I had an older lady sitting next to me just like last time (When I flew from Atlanta to London in September, I also sat next to an older lady). This second older lady was different from the first one though... The first lady that I sat next to was very talkative and I am not sure if this second lady even knew English, or French... I am still not really sure what language she spoke. I tried talking to her in all the languages I know, but no verbal response from her... she would just smile and sometimes gesture with her hands (she pretty much only gestured to me when she wanted me to turn off her little TV because she didn’t know how). I am still not sure how she ordered her food and drinks on the flight, I think the flight attendants just guessed at what she wanted... Anyways, to pass the time I watched two movies, one of which was Despicable Me 2. I thought that it was a pretty good movie. 

After arriving in Atlanta at about 12 30am, I got picked up by some good friends and I stayed in Atlanta for the night. The next morning, my family came and took me home. 

I had a great two weeks in the US and it was definitely worth coming back for the holidays! I really enjoyed spending Christmas with the family. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. I'm glad that I got to spend some good quality time with my family and friends! I got to eat some things that I really missed such as mom’s home cooking, stir-fry with teriyaki sauce, a Chick-fil-a sandwich, waffle fries, peppermint milkshake, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and froyo! 

A new ornament that I got of the Eiffel Tower from the Eiffel Tower

Best doughnuts ever

I got some quality hangout time with my sisters by going shopping and watching all of the Harry Potter movies together. I got to meet up with some good friends throughout the break as well which was really fun! I even went bowling and got a strike! It was kind of a big deal for me, because I am not the best bowler lol. Also, I got to drive myself around during these two weeks which was a nice change, and it wasn’t even difficult for me to drive after three months. 

Bowling crew

Chilling at the bowling alley

On Saturday night, January 4th, I took a plane back to France. In fact, I took two planes. The first plane was from Atlanta to Amsterdam. This time I sat next to this middle aged guy who just watched movies the entire flight. I watched a comedy called The Campaign and then I tried to get some sleep. I had about a three hour layover in Amsterdam. When I got to my gate, I noticed that there was a plane going to Warsaw an hour before my plane to Lyon. I sat there for a while listening to some music, when an old lady comes up to me and asks me in Polish if I am going to Warsaw. She just wanted to verify that she was in the right gate. I told her she was, and we ended up talking for about an hour or so. It was nice to be able to help this lady and it was nice to speak Polish with someone! My plane to Lyon arrived a little late, but it still got to Lyon on time! On this short flight, I sat next to a younger guy and we had a nice chat. It was nice to have some friendly company during a flight! :)

Cool smoothie I bought in Amsterdam. It came with a cute little hat!

I arrived in Lyon Sunday night around 5pm, and I got picked up from the airport by my French host family and I was so grateful for that! In this way, I avoided taking the train and lugging my luggage around. I was really exhausted when I arrived in France, so it was nice to just take a car ride home. 

Once I got home, I unpacked, and I had a great salmon dinner with my roomies! I missed them while on break and I am glad to be living with them again!

I was so tired though when I got back, so I went to sleep around 10pm that day and slept for 11 hours...

On Monday, I had the day to relax, so I slept in a little, and then I ran some errands in town. I did some grocery shopping, bought a bus pass for the month, and met up for tea with Kate and Jack. 

I am excited to go back to the schools this week. I missed teaching and I missed my students!

Back to school Tuesday,

Magdalena