oh, oktoberfest. what to say! it was an amazingly fun 36 hours...
emily and i left the house at 4:30 am on Friday, compote and "gingerbread man" cakes in tow, thanks to the ever-charming, helpful and fantastic employer, madame sophie.
60 euros later, we arrived at the airport with time to spare. emily sucked down a pre-flight fag and we hurried to the boarding area... where we then waited for a 10 minute (?!) bus ride to the plane. it was quite a small plane, "lufthansa regional" and all...
i think the pictures sum it up best:

"hey! i had a good crack at that goat!"

le fin.

"i am very hot in my big socks!"

so, i haven't done a very good job of updating this thing... it's like i feel there is so much to say and not enough time or ways to say it all! my experiences here can be summed up and pieced together if you were to look at the different messages/emails/postcards/chat transcripts/text messages(!) i have had with friends back home since being here. such is life, i suppose... all these pieces are part of a whole. but i will forget the awe and amazement with which i approach so many things on a daily basis if i don't write them down, in a place for me, where i can remember.

and now i can't remember what i wanted to write! maybe this is why i like to take so many (excessive) pictures. i am not as good as i purport myself to be at describing things in a way that they can be truly "seen." it's that old 6th grade creative writing lesson: show not tell! yet, i still have not mastered it. practice will help, i suppose!

another problem i have with writing this is that i want to get away from simply stating my day by day happening; i want it to be something more. maybe if i just START it will evolve naturally in what i want it to be. i'll be able to say (and show!) things the way i really want to be able to. here it goes, i suppose!

overall, i am so happy with my situation here in lyon. i was so worried that it was somehow all a scam, that no one would be at the airport to pick me up, that i would have flown halfway around the world for nothing... and that hasn't been the case at all! i guess, on a simple level already, my faith in humanity has been somewhat restored: the fact that this family would open their home so warmly to me, a complete stranger, and be nothing but helpful and accommodating and willing to offer me this great experience, is incredible. i am so grateful. i could not ask for a nicer couple to work for. and the kids, though a handful at times, are generally so sweet. and, really, i can remember why i wanted, ever, to be a teacher now. it was so FUN working with julien on his english "dictée," and even more fun to see the pride with which he showed his parents his perfect, "100%!!!" practice test. the kids can just be so cute! i feel like i am able to doubly see things "through the eyes of a child" living here as i am allowing myself to be awstruck, impressed, and interested in, what must seem to the people living here, the smallest trivialities. for instance, the cute little 63 calorie coke cans make me smile. the old women riding the bus, who test my french abilities by asking, "vingt trois?" and my new bensimon shoes that me feel just oh-so-french as as i look at my matching counterparts on the metro/tram/bus. public transportation itself gives me such a thrill, and i am pleased continually to such a silly extent when i figure out alternate routes all by myself (directional dyslexia is a challenge, okay?!).

i love being in a city like this, with so much history. i love the fabulously designed tourism guide books (so much so that i have begun a collage on my wall of them--cheap interior decorating? yes, please!). i like the old statues, the old architecture, the cute, quaint streets and the plethora of museums (that i need to make much more of an effort to visit! however, i think i am doing it alright by saving the indoor things to do when the weather isn't quite so fabulous!). i like the idea that could get off at every bus stop that i take on the way to school and see something new everyday (and eat a kebab for lunch!). i like it all.

"but i must say and this is goign to sound cheesy; but i think of you when i feel lost sometimes b/c what you are doing is brave; okay that sounds so cheesy esp over fb, but i admire you; we all have our shit."

aw, shucks, craig's list roomie!