Living it up at the hotel Livantsoa

Hola, wie geht's? Oy, so I finished my first week teaching at the Collège (which, confusingly enough, is the word for middle school). Overall, things went relatively well, with the usual uncomfortable question here and there. Do you have any children? Yes, but I don't know how many.

There was, however, one class that was complètement painful for me, however. I'd seen this group before, and they were friendly, but this time the teacher asked me to try to teach them about NYC for some questionaire/faux interview they had to do. I, unfortunately, went in thinking the assignment had already been discussed and the kids had direction. Alas, after an hour of me talking about a city I have never visited, with almost no one responding, I was glad to be finished for the day.

A propos de logement: I've been searching for housing with a Spanish lang. assistant from Chile who is very nice. However, luck seems to have it that the only apartments available often fit into one of 3 categories, with some forcing their way into several of the categories: 1) too expensive, 2) too far, 3) too small. In spite of the steady stream of letdowns, there is a potentially promising possibility for housing that might could maybe, given the proper alignment of stars, work- and that is living with a family in Toulouse. I did some application for this program, and the lady got back to me within a day, saying she knows of a family, but just needs to confirm that they still want to house a Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey (i.e. me).

On other fronts: The long march toward legal residence is closer to being completed! I have a medical appointment tomorrow, which should be no problem to pass, unless, of course, my Blood Cheese Level is too low. Speaking of long marches, the once-supremely-confident Cowboys crossed the Volga and fell at Stalingrad...err, St. Louis...maybe we should just play for draft picks now? Or just forget the season and anxiously await the promise-to-disappoint Mavericks. Regardless, Dallas sports as a whole: NO FUNERAL!

Oh, I'm getting my birth-certificate translation tomorrow...wooohoo! I mean, I already did this myself and gave it to the school for salary purposes, but technically they aren't satisfied until I've paid 35 euros for this worthless document. Why does it not suffice that my passport shows my date of birth (and has all of the information in French)? Merde, quoi, France.

Finally, I've got this week of oh-so-grueling work before our 2 week vacation, which I feel I've earned. I mean, 2.5 weeks of work justifies 2 weeks of vacation, right? I have no plans at the moment because booking travel this late appears to be rather expensive, but my friends Marta and Jenna are coming from Spain this weekend, which should be fun. Guaranteed dance contests, moments lost in translation, and "Greg, I can't eat all of this, do you want to finish it?" Of course I do.