j'adooOooOooOOOoooOore

i think i'm in love.

le rêve de californie

You know how sometimes a light and easy breeze can kind of hit you right between the eyes? A wave of nostalgia and you realize you miss something so desperately that just a few seconds earlier was miles from your thoughts.

I've had a stupidly busy week at work with lots of test preparation which, while straightforward enough to do, is exhausting for everyone involved. It's simply just repetition of the same concepts over and over again, correcting mistakes and reading and rereading long texts and explaining grammar rules in lots of contexts. It's not like I can just shut off and give them the right answers -- I also have to understand and explain them too. I would compare it to something like the SAT, for reference. The hours are long and even though the students are very nice and motivated, at the end of the day I just feel like collapsing. It feels a little something like spending the day in a library, pouring over a final essay or revising subjects for your end of year exams.

So when I buzz out of the building and walk down the chic street, sun in my eyes and a gust of warm summer wind blows my hair over my shoulders, it strikes me as eerily Californian, which is absurd. Toulouse is a few hours from the sea, I'm located in the city center with towering buildings on all sides and it's July without air conditioning. But somehow, there is something very sea-like about this breeze -- like I could stop and close my eyes and imagine seagulls above me or sitting at Kono's with a towering stack of pancakes, staring into the breaking waves of the pacific.

I try to remember what it was like living in San Diego, the way the wind feels whooshing past as you speed along the freeway or the thickness of the air in the morning. I can try my best to imagine, but it seems very far away sometimes, like it was a different lifetime ago. Maybe it was clouded by thoughts of coursework and classes and papers, but it seems to be fading -- the tactile memories of living in what I still claim to be my favorite city in the world.

In the world. 

Meaning, if I had to choose between living in France or living in San Diego, it would rip my heart out either way, but San Diego is pretty damn hard to beat.

PB

"i'm gonna go talk to some food about this."

"[People] cheat. People fail. This is an immutable fact of life. I think we think we’re defined by our successes like weddings, and promotions, and crazy vacations. But I think it’s our disappointments that make us who we are. The way we emotionally adapt to a world that won’t give us what we want is the secret to human uniqueness. Some of us negotiate this chaos and behave exactly as expected—we claw, we hoard, we deceive. Some of us surrender to our lot and find that love is forgiving someone for the embarrassment of being human. Those people are special, and no one writes opinion columns about them."

ça m'a fait lol, deux.

Another collection of quotes, most of which are from my hilarious students.

[standing outside a restaurant with a few people when a group of guys who I think were out for a bachelor party approaches us... ]
Drunk French fool (in French): Is there someone here who speaks English?!
Me: ...Um, well, yes...
Fool: Do you speak English really? Because me, "Aye cahm frahm Lawse Angellees!" You see?
Me: Seriously? That was the worst American accent I've ever heard.
Drunk fool: Why you don't believe me !?

[discussing internet related vocabulary]
Student: I use the internet to google search monkey forests.

[searching something on the computer]
Student: You will be your big hands.
Me: Pardon?
Student: You don't know the French expression? Tu tapes avec tes gros droigts!
Me: I type with my fat fingers?
Student: Yes... They're quite big.

[speaking of hobbies/interests]
Student A: I like wildlife photography.
Student B: -looking around incredulously-
Me: What? Is that strange?
Student B: Wildwife photography???? You admit to our teacher that you like wildwife photography????

Student: I never tried drugs when I was young.
Me: That's probably smart.
Student: Smart... ? Like the car?
Me: No, like intelligent.
Student: Smart is the same that intelligent!? I thought it's the name of the car! Incredible!!

[talking about air travel]
Student: I have a very racist joke on this subject.
Me: Let's hear it, then.
[My boss walks through the room and smiles at us both, closing the door behind her]
Student: (whispering) ok, she's left so I can tell it now.