Armistice is a good memory

I have now officially been in France long enough to acculturate a bit: the church bells no longer wake me. I barely notice them. They sort of blend into the holiday decorations that have been going up. If the Diwali lights in Lille are any indication, Cambrai is going to be gorgeous when they finally turn the Christmas lights on. Everything's gearing up for the Noel season. Apparently in Vienna, the Christmas markets open next week, and I've been listening to Christmas music all week. I listened at school on day in the teachers' lounge and the teachers were amused but wanted to listen to more.

It's been back to school this week. This is the time I appreciate the end of daylight savings. My walk across town is better lit, and the sun is actually up by the time I get to school, so it feels less like the middle of the night. The students were good this week, though I had significantly fewer classes than I expected. One of the English teachers is out on early maternity leave and has been for a couple of weeks, and they just found a replacement for her, so none of her students came to my classes. But everything was good: I tried to explain American politics to my students and coax them to talk about French politics. As it turns out, politics are difficult to explain in any language. So it goes. At least they know a little bit about the Congress now.

Our Germanophones have started teaching us German, and Cata's teaching us Spanish, so expect me to come back a bizarre polyglot. And soon I should have my titre de sejour and be able to leave the country! That means a delightful trip to Belgium, hopefully, and who knows where else? Everything in Europe is so much closer than anything in the U.S. That's been fun to explain - all my students are startled when I tell them France is about the size of Texas. Yes, it's small, this place, but it's the center of the world.

Yesterday was Armistice Day. They put blue, white, and red lights on the World War One memorial statue and a lot of the shops were closed. We watched The Sound of Music in celebration and ate cake. And there's already a train strike on (or was last week), so they didn't even have to close the SNCF station. So convenient, France, and so full of memories sometimes.