Sorry I was moany...!

Apologies for sounding so whingey the last time I blogged - was just having a bad couple of days! I think it was being forced to get up at 6.15am two days in a row when I'm not used to it! Anyway, I'm feeling much better now so I can update properly.

Antony arrived for the weekend on the Friday (before my last post, so just over a week ago) and I picked him up at the airport with fresh croissants and pain au chocolat :) Yum. Once he'd got settled, in the afternoon we went for a wander around the marais and I showed him all the cool shops and cafés, and we had a quick look around BHV (enormous department store not unlike selfridges) before going to dinner at Chartier, where I had been for Lessy's birthday a couple of weeks back. The waiter we had was so nice, although he kept calling us 'les enfants'!
On Saturday (the weather was gorgeous for the whole weekend, we were really lucky) we went to look at the Arc de Triomphe and took pictures (Antony had never been under it so we went to see the eternal flame and all the names etc.) - although we didn't climb up to the top as we were going to do the Eiffel Tower later on. After lunch we walked down across the river and through the Champ de Mars to the Eiffel Tower, where we queued for a while before climbing the stairs to the first floor. I don't recommend it!!! The air was cold despite the sun, so it made my lungs hurt as well as my legs! (I'm such a wimp.) The view, however, was worth it, and we took some lovely pictures which eventually I'll get round to putting up here...!
In the late afternoon we took a bus through Paris to Hotel de Ville and met up with Miguel and Dina for coffee, then I had an amazing italian ice cream before we headed home! Sunday was just spent sorting out some of my stuff (Antony had brought a spare bag so that I could pack a load of stuff and he could take it back to the UK for me in advance of moving out...it will mean less stuff to carry on Friday hopefully!) and travelling to the airport. Was sad to see him go, but he'll be back on Wednesday!

Monday I worked at St Germain, although I had very few students so it was quiet, and did some supermarket shopping on the way home. Tuesday I was working a full day at Antony-val with the PE2 option students - most of which was spent looking up nursery rhymes, songs and tongue twisters for them to use on the computers! Miguel and I then went to AquaGym after work, which was good fun but quite tiring! To cheer ourselves up after that (as it was rainy and miserable) we went to a Starbucks cafe in town and had chai tea lattes (my new favourite alternative to coffee) and cake :) Wednesday was another full day in Antony-val and when I wrote my fed up post - it was still rainy, still grey, and I was still tired! We spent all of Weds recording story books onto a computer and then writing the files to CDs for the students to use in their classes, which was quite good fun but tiring, too. I had to read 'The Enormous Turnip' and 'The Queen's Knickers' and 'The gingerbread man', among other children's classics! I then went home and had a nap, after which I felt a bit better...

That lasted until Thursday afternoon, when I went to St Germain to discover I hadn't been put on the timetable, and therefore I had no classroom and the students didn't know they had a lesson! Grrr. I went into town to cheer myself up with shopping, instead, and bought some nice tops and a pair of sunglasses in H&M :D On Friday I did two loads of washing so now my washing basket is all but empty - hopefully this will make packing easier at the end of the week as most things I can just take out of my wardrobe and put into bags!

On Saturday I spent the day relaxing, before going out in the evening, first to Miguel's for supper (burgers and 'fries' as he and his american housemates insisted on calling them!) then to a bar in Bastille with Miguel, Elena and Paz, from where we later went on to a club down the road called Wax. Lots of dancing, lots of fun! I got home at 7.30am (I know, dirty stopout!) having been to the boulangerie on the way for fresh croissants for breakfast! I therefore spent most of Sunday sleeping :)

Which brings me (at last) back up to today - I'm at St Germain, but no students turned up for my first lesson so I'm taking advantage of the free time to use the computer room. It's the last time I have to work here, and it looks like I'm going to have a relaxed last week, as work at Antony-val tomorrow has been cancelled due to a general strike (including trains which would make it almost impossible to get there in the first place), so I only have to work on Thursday afternoon! I am looking forward to Wednesday (my birthdayyyy!!) as Julia and I are going to go out for a wander during the day, then in the evening I'm collecting Antony from Gare du Nord, we're dumping the bags at my place and then heading straight back out to go to the Frog and Rosbif Pub to meet my friends! :D

It will be very strange to move out on Friday - I have already sold my fridge and my mobile phone (I only put up the posters yesterday and people rang me this morning! Crazy) and will start taking things down and packing things up tonight and tomorrow... Antony is bringing the big suitcase from home so hopefully we'll fit everything in!!
More ASAP - maybe from London! Have a good week...
Lxx