Randomness...

Random thoughts from today...

• I remembered today how much I HATE laundromats! And this one (2 blocks from my kot, only good thing about it) is particularly crappy... only 4 working washing machines and 1 working drier. And I had a load of light and dark to do (I've got enough clothes to get me through 2 weeks, and with sheets and towels can complete enough for 2 machines). Talk about wasting time... Thank heavens I've got free time in my class schedule during the day 'cause this place has to be impossible on weekends! :s

• I am so behind on my blog it's not even funny anymore! Even with free hours here and there in the day, it's hard to sit down and write when I have to prepare classes, or when I'm tired (or recuperating from the extremely nasty cold that hit me last week) and just want to veg out watching a TV show, or catch up with family and friends on Facebook or Skype...

• When was the last time I talked about movies? Or the books I was reading? I have to bring myself up to speed on those 'cause I've got access to some really good ones here! We've got a great independant movie theatre (I saw a couple of lovely French movies in Sept!) here, all in VOS (no dubbing, YAY!!!), and I've managed to renew my suscription to the local library... Add to that the books friends have been kind enough to loan me, and as you can see: 

 

• Plenty to read! :o) (which is a good thing, otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to avoid book shopping and considering I'm heading off to New Zealand straight from here I don't want to be lugging tons of already read books across the globe and back! lol!) I've got three historic novels in Spanish which my dad got for me to take to my sister in New Zealand, the Stieg Larsson Millenium trilogy and Camilla Lackberg's Ice Princess on loan from a friend, the George Martin "A Song of Ice and Fire" series on loan from another friend, the final 4 books of the Patrick O'Brien series (20 total!) on the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars from the library (which they didn't have yet when last I was a member) and random others...

• One of my students yesterday told me he really likes the way I teach the class (English for 2nd year Psychology). He liked that I explained why their mistakes (grammar or vocab) were wrong, as opposed to just correcting them. Gave me a fuzzy warm feeling all day!

• I finally got my contract this past Monday, signed it, and turned it in. Let's see how long it takes the University to pay me for my 2 weeks of work in September... hopefully not too long, I'm out of cash and my credit card is accumulating interest! :s

• I've already had several very pleasant evenings/days with friends here I hadn't seen in a while.

• I've got an invite to a wedding in Athens (Greece) in February and somewhere in Brittany (France) in July 2011.

• My post on Seagrasses for last June's World Oceans Day Oceanic Blog-A-Thon is being used by the English teachers here as a listening comprehension exercise for the Sophomore Biology students! They had me go in to the "studio" and record a reading of it last week! :o)

• The odd food item keeps disappearing from our common fridge and freezer... and we're pretty sure it's one of the house inhabitants (and we know which one, just can't do anything about it). :s

• The guy in the room above mine, a vet student, has a really adorable kitten he rescued from the street (found with dead mother and siblings) and nursed back to health. I just spent an hour playing with the kit and he doesn't seem to mind with smelly shoes... :p

• Here's what the putty'tat has to say about all this:

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                                   .bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
 
...............................................................................................................................................................;87

8;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;7                            hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaxxx
xxxx                                                                                                                     
fff000dddd788888888888888888888888888888888888887d.............
 

• And to finish off, an old nursery rhyme a French friend just reminded me of (my Grandmother only ever told me the first two lines!):

Good night, sleep tight,
Don't let the bedbugs bite.
And if they do...
Then take your shoe
And knock 'em 'till
They're black and blue!