Back to Angouleme

Got back from the vacation and the weather in Angouleme was terrible.  For the first time in at least a week and a half it was raining pretty hard and did so for the majority of this week.  It was strange coming back to Angouleme and feeling at home.  But this is now my life and everyday routines seem to be less of an adventure. It is not something that I am upset about by any means.  I think it is awesome that I wake up in France and have come to think of it as perfectly normal.  Wednesday night, we had a faculty dinner party at the principal's house and all the teachers were there (which is about 8 or 9).  We watched the Wizard of Oz in French because the kids are doing a project at the end of the year on it and we had to all watch it to get started on ideas.  It was also dinner with wine, champagne, quiches, chocolate cakes, egg rolls, indian meat pastries, and a bunch of other food.  It was a really interesting opportunity to interact with the teachers outside of school.  On an everyday basis our conversations deal with school, what we are doing in class that day, what kids behaved, etc, but this was different because the majority of the conversations were not related to school.  I guess it is just interesting to see people and spend time with people in a context that is different than the one that you are used to.  For me, it was a good chance to just relax and spend time with these people and speak to them and not have everything be about school.  Apparently they do these dinner parties before or after every break that we have in school (which is a lot) so I am looking forward to them in the future.  When I left the principal's house, one of the teacher's had offered to give me a ride.  When we got to his car, his passenger window had been shattered. I had no idea what to do or to say.  It was such an uncomfortable position to be and I felt so bad for this teacher.  Also, only one thing was stolen out of his car: a flash drive.  He was going to take me home, but I offered to go with him to the police station just to make sure that everything with the report went smoothly.  I figured it was the least I could do for him.  After leaving the french police station at 1:00 am, I finally got home.  Aside from the unfortunate incident that occurred with the window, it was a an enjoyable evening and a great way to settle back into life in Angouleme after a long vacation.