this year: same city, same collèges, same apartment, same room (YES!!), different roommates. there's kanika from jaipur, india who is 22 and tania from omsk, russia is 23. i speak mostly english with kanika and french only with tania. it's good. i've met a lot of cool people from all over and i already have a feeling that this year has the potential to be even better than the last...
i'm taking an art class once a month with a friend, laura, who was also an assistant last year. we didn't meet until this year. she lives in rouen, too. just done the street actually. we're both going to be working on pieces with gouache. i'm probably going to do some kind of landscape or something on an old kitchen cabinet door i salvaged last year. i'm not thaaaaaat into landscapes but i want to make something i can use to decorate my bare walls and leave behind for the pleasure of future assistants. that is, if it turns out to be pleasing at all! but i am really looking forward to the class.
classes are fine. instead of doing the 2 week period of observation like the other assistants, i just started teaching right away. not much to report on the kiddies yet since a lot of them are the same students i had last year and we're still working on all the 'getting to know you/beginning of the year' stuff. after 2 weeks of teaching, peppered with days off due to strikes and assistant meetings, i had the vacances de la toussaint - a 2 week autumn break. it must be nice to be french all the time...thankfully, everything worked out in terms of people's schedules and me receiving my salary advance on time *phew* and i was able to take a trip to madrid as i had originally hoped to during the fall break. the best part was - meg and pat being there as my awesome tour guides/hosts AND halloween falling on the sunday during my stay!! i'm sure some a ya are like, who dey? meg and pat are good friends of mine from chicago (meaghan is a former roomie) and they are gf and bf living in madrid teaching english like meeeeeee! except they teach mostly adults who aren't as easily influenced by colorful, shiny stickers.
anyway, MADRID. madrid is pretty cool. it wasn't what i had imagined a spanish city to look like but it was lovely (maybe i had barcelona or southern spain in mind?). my trip wasn't really about doing touristy things, it was about seeing my friends and celebrating halloween, a holiday which the french largely ignore. tragic, i know. our costumes were just one step above covering ourselves with white sheets and calling ourselves ghosts but pickins' were slim and not many people dress up over the age of 4.
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| the gato negro, witch and pumpkin *photo courtesy of Pete Moss |
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| 1st night - dinner at a tapas restaurant with sandy floors |
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| a parade we came across |
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| my first time eating ethiopian food - yum! |
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| catedral de la almudena |
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| inside catedral de la almudena |
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| my favorite purchase |
and, finally, let us close with this entry's installment of...
Life Lessons with Lauryn: How to Make Ugly Shit Uglier
so, i got really sick of the ugly table in my room and wanted to do something to make it more attractive. last year it bugged the hell out of me too but of course i didn't do anything about it.
the table before (in tania's room)
buying a new one was out of the question. painting it? no way, it's metal and plastic. and a tablecloth would not only be old ladyish it would also be covered in grease stains, whiteout marks, pen scribbles, crumbs and wine rings in no time. after considering my other options (few), i decided to go with a gorgeous faux burl look - a look only discount store contact paper could truly create. to the 2€ store i went! and i covered that desk in 2 rolls of the finest faux burl wood print paper 4€ could buy. upon finishing, i quickly realized...it looked AWFUL. of course it did. then my roommate confirmed it. so i desperately set out in search of a solution. strangely enough, i found myself back at the 2€ store buying more faux wooden contact paper, only this time, a plainer wood grain with a reddish hue. i wondered aloud if i was crazy but i knew i would be even crazier not to try. and ladies and gentlemen, in all of its kitschy tackiness...
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| a close up of grain that would make the redwood forest envious |
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| the finished product |
i'm sure most of you are grimacing right now but you shoulda seen what it first looked like. trust me, unpainted particle board and plywood would've been cuter. but now, from a far distance without your glasses on, it almost appears to be real wood and even slightly matches my bed frame and nightstand. it's grown on me. just like a tree! and now i'm going to make like one and LEAF.
salut!!
