Up and Down.

Check the title. That describes today. I would rather write this on my computer in my studio instead of typing it on the internet was I'm composing it but I just need to get this all down. So forgive my faults in othrograph and grammar. (Listening to fabulous french music- Dominique A).

Today was my last day teaching classes. It was with some of my most penible students, but for the most part the day went well considering that the classes didn't have much structure at all. I was having each class group write a short "letter" to me so I can make a book to remember them by, playing the Beach Boys for them and handing out a mini Reese's cup to each kid so they could try a classic american candy. Most of my classes had gone fairly well like this for the last two weeks, but one of my classes was so autrious (?) today, that they got neither music nor candy. I left the candies with their teacher so they can have them tomorrow I suppose. And when they finished these little letters they could draw a picture if they wanted. So one of the pictures I got was of the airplanes crashing into Twin Towers... and so in shock I handed it into the teacher I was working with today and just asked in addition to any punishment he received that he be made to research the event. Otherwise my last day was pretty much a standard day except for at lunch when I was waiting to go catch my bus back to Metz and my coordinating teachers gave me a book that they had made with all the kids in all my classes that included their pictures! Wow, it was super great and I've already enjoyed it so much!

My doctor's appointment today went super great too as I told the gyno I was going back to the States and wouldn't have insurance there, so she gave me a renewed prescription for 6 months and then two months of pills for free! I think because she felt sorry I was going back to a country that doesn't provide health insurance for its citizens. Something I should definitely blog about more. Tomorrow's the dentist! I love how cheap it's here anyway even without possibly getting reimbursed!

Getting back to home, I found one of the best surprises of today... a package from my fairy goddaughter, Amelia! I was super excited and so happy and like a kid at Christmas and practically torn open the package! I love that someone else besides me uses EasyMac or Poptarts boxes to mail things in! She totally sent me the equivalent of gold for an American in France........ EASYMAC!!!!! Plus letters from my sisters and a photo from Spring Pledging! YAY!!!!!

And in addition to my package today I got a package from Kim yesterday, sending on a purchase I forgot to make in Switzerland when I was visiting her near the border. So mail's been great the last two days.... but please, if you're going to send anything to me from today on, send it to my US address, as I move out of this address on Monday. (This is so unreal.)

It turns out after reading others' blogs tonight that Iowa's getting a flood of former Cornellians in May. And speaking of Cornell, it turns out that one of the great professors I had at Cornell died last October, Randy Ziegenhorn. I have to say that besides the wonderful Professor Alfrieta Monagan, he was the other influencing factor for me to continue with my anthro dreams and degree past freshman year. His classes were brilliant with amazing people in them, his insights into important issues and his opinions, and his stories that filled in the spaces between... It's definitely been an up and down day.

Leaving the school today didn't really feel like the last time and it was. I will likely never see those kids again, unless Vincent does become a famous french tv news reporter, or one of the Thomas's does actually visit me in the US (haha), or one of the Homers (their English name- and they didn't get it from the great Greek author) makes it into my luggage, but as I'm not sure I can even get all my stuff inside my suitcases, that's unlikely. And as I have another three and a half weeks still in France, it just feels so weird that today is suppose to be my last day... I'm not leaving for the US yet but I'm done with my students. I'm packing up to move, but not home... instead to camp out with friends in Paris for more than a week, interrupted by five days out to Prague and back.

Then Anna left today to catch a flight home, I mean really home, to New York. She gets here after me and leaves before me. I stood out on the computer lab balcony for a bit because I could see her window from there and into her room. It's just so empty. All so unreal. Up and down.

I'm sure there's more but I think nows just a good time to stop. I'll write when I'm not so out of it and melancholy or next time I have some internet access.

If anyone wants a french teenage coorespondant.... haha, not really I couldn't subject you to my little monsters!

Thanks too, Amelia! You totally made my day! Biz.