Nearly Christmas!!

Well, it's almost Christmas vacation! (I leave tomorrow today and still have a million things to do, YIKES!)

There was a strike at my high school; the teachers were striking because the academy wants to cut two of their programs. I think they're worried that in a few years, the whole school will just shut down. The strike started last Wednesday, so I didn't have classes Thursday or Friday (I went to see The Hobbit on my unexpected days off). On Sunday, the other assistant and I were invited to go see La Course Landaise (regional bullfighting). Of course I had already seen a bit of it at he Cocardes and Championnat at the end of September, but this time it was in an indoor arena -- one of the first of its kind, and had just opened a week or so before. One of the younger professors (who was also invited by our lovely librarian) drove everyone, which was really nice.

The show was basically exactly what I was expecting, though quite a bit shorter than the Championnat (thank goodness). I saw some "familiar" faces that had been at the Cocardes and Championnat, which was interesting.

The senior class of the local high school did a little show to entertain the kids -- they dressed up as Santa Clauses and played musical chairs (except with a calf running around trying to knock everyone/everything over) and did a dance routine. They also apparently have a rivalry between two villages (the one with the arena, and another not far away). So they had older teenagers representing each village do some competitions.

For one of the competitions, they had to do a relay (take water from a big bucket into a smaller bucket, crawl through a tunnel, run up and over a ramp, and empty their buckets into a vial). Sounds simple? Except then they put an angry bull in the middle of the ring. So suddenly it wasn't so easy.

In another game, 4 people from each team got into a contraption that was basically 4 giant inner-tubes stacked on each other and were given a giant hula hoop to hold (they could stick their arms out between the innertubes). Then, yep, you guessed it! They let an angry bull loose in the ring. The object of the game was to get the bull to charge you and slip the hoop around it, so that it went completely through the hula hoop. (Yes, they were wearing helmets, but not much else by way of protection.)

Suffice it to say, contraptions were completely wrecked. But I don't think anyone got seriously injured. I think I'll stick to my wild and crazy hobby of reading books after school, but it was fun to watch. And all the kids clearly knew what they were doing, so though it sounds pretty unsafe to me, I'm sure it wasn't actually that much of a risk.

Other than that, I have just been plugging away at grad school applications. (Finally completely and totally done. Just waiting on a few letters of recommendation and then it's on to the next stage: waiting anxiously while university after university inevitably rejects me. ha.)

I am quite ready for Christmas break (even if I'm not at all prepared for it). All of the professors have been getting sick and the kids are getting antsy. But my 11/12 year olds remain as ADORABLE as ever (dare I say, maybe even more adorable???). I think I might be starting to get somewhere with some of my high schoolers (some groups are just zombies, but other groups are coming along). I've got to find a way to lay off on the cookies, though. These kids are breaking the bank. But I do kind of love how much they love the chocolate oatmeal cookies since they're a family recipe and my personal favorite cookie in the whole wide world.

Other than that, I'm really not doing much of anything. (I hope to be changing this when this break is over and I am finally free of the grad school application shackle.) I got a wonderful package from my lovely best friend yesterday, and I am now equipped with fake snow and (more) tea (no such thing as too much tea!), a good book, and a good many other things besides. My mom sent me a package, too; I got a packet of postcards from my aunt and uncle; and I might be (finally, maybe) almost done with paperwork to get housing assistance.

Tomorrow I jet off to Lyon, then Geneva and Marseille during the Christmas holidays. I was really excited to go paragliding near Geneva, but it turns out that they're not open in December. I'll just have to find some other thrilling, daredevil activity to occupy my time. I'm also super excited to go visit CERN and the large hadron collider (*nerd*).

So with that, lovely people, I shall leave you. If you have any suggestions on things to see in or around any of those cities, drop me a line in the comments. Oh, and DFTBA.

(p.s. I have photos and video -- mostly video -- from bullfighting on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to edit it/get it up before I leave, so it might have to wait until I get back in January)