Life In Blois

I thought maybe I should actually talk about what I'm doing here, since this seems to have turned into just a travel journal.

School is basically the same. I picked up another 1.5 hours of CM2 class at VH, so I have an extra 45 minutes of work now (I dropped the 45 minutes of CM2s I was doing at BA). Its a big class, but they're well-behaved and they've had English all year so we're not struggling the way we would be if we were really starting right at the beginning. They're also really obsessed with getting me to speak French to them. (The teacher they had before, who is pregnant, was a regular French teacher, so she spoke a lot of French in the lessons). Another one of my schools invited me to go on a three-day bike ride with them in May, which would involve seeing some chateaux and spending lots of time with the students (but they're my favorite school), but I have to make sure I can make up the hours I would be missing at my other schools.

I haven't found that many other things to occupy my time, but I'm volunteering at Chato'do whenever I can, and I might take over some volunteer English lessons that another assistant, who is leaving at the beginning of April, is doing. I'm a little worried about how I will pass my time when everyone leaves in April, but one of my best friends here, Claire, has got a bartending job, so she's going to stick around (though whether we'll have any overlapping free time remains to be seen) all summer. Also, the weather is just starting to get nice, and so I have plans to go on random day trips to little towns on the train line, just to check them out, and I'll also start biking more.

Last weekend, Claire, Luisa, and I went to a wine fair (a tasting with people from lots of different wine regions), which was pretty cool. I managed to learn a little bit about wines and what I like, so now I can leave France with some knowledge in that direction. We also got to taste some wines from the Loire Valley, some from right around Blois! Unfortunately, the buses stopped running on the way back, so we had to walk for a while in the wind and rain (and also, we walked 15 minutes in the wrong direction first) through farmland, and by the time we got back we were exhausted.

I also went to the chateau in Blois, finally, last Sunday. It was quite impressive and worth going to (at least once, I'm not sure how many times I'll want to go back), though they were in the middle of filming a movie there, so some of the rooms were not open.

I still haven't heard from the summer camp where I want to work, here in France. My plan remains the same, though (unless, of course, I don't get the job)--work there through August, travel around Europe in September and October (and/ or until my money runs out), and then come back to the states and get a job (though I am going to try to find something before I leave Europe so I have a general idea of where I'm going.)

As for future travels, I'm going to Strasbourg this weekend and then for my next vacation (the 5th through the 20th of April), I'm going to Greece for almost two weeks and then Rome for just a weekend. I've made a list of places in France I want to go to on weekend trips, so (as long as I have money left), I'll be hitting those as much as I can in May and June.