these are the days worth livin'

It makes sense that I'd have less time to sit around blogging now that I'm back in La Rochelle, immersed in daily life. And day to day life tends not to be the stuff worth reading, unless you're the most interesting man (or woman) in the world, which I'm not.

I got back to work this week—okay, one day, still it was a long one. I dealt with high school students in the morning, who were no interested in anything other than themselves (surprise, surprise) and middle school students in the afternoon, the first class of which went really well, the second somehow was more frightening than the high school students. How is that possible, I ask you? I'm twenty-two years old, a group of cocky twelve-year-olds shouldn't make me nervous. Should it? I feel like I'm twelve again being intimidated by my peers.

But I am the teacher, and getting to tell a student to pick up his stuff and move to the front of the class because he's chatting too much with his buddy is incredibly amazingly fun. And thoroughly satisfying. If only I'd had that power as student, my life would've been much less stressful in school.

This morning, I got up and went to the market to buy some veggies for food this weekend. I wish I were more of a cook, because I think if I were the market would be some sort of heaven. There are fruits, veggies, fish, meats, breads, and sweets of all kinds. I bought some zucini and red peppers to go in my curry I plan to make tomorrow for dinner. Tonight I had ramen noodles and left over dinner from last night, which I'd gotten in the market on Friday. It was a potato, cheese, and ham sort-of casserole. Very good. I decided to take the weekend to get some writing done and work on my applications for grad school, so I haven't been doing much execpt hanging around the apartment today.

At the market, I was on my way home, and I passed one of the last stands, a bakery. I couldn't resist buying a box of little treats so I could try several different ones.


So far, I've eaten three of them, and each one has been delicious. Delicate flavors, only slightly sweetened. The perfect treat.

Earlier this week, I bought myself a strawberry tart to munch on, and thought I'd share it with you now:

It had a cream filling that was perfect and the crust was just the right amount of crisp and flake. I swear, the French have got sweets down to an art form. It's rather unfair, except I get to eat them while I'm here, and that's good.

I also tried a cupcake in Angers for breakfast the day I left. It was raspberry-pistachio flavored, and probably one of the best cupcakes I've ever eaten, including my own (which are very good, if I do say so myself).

Speaking of Angers, I thought I'd show you a few rough, untouched photos I took of the city. I promise prettier ones will be coming once my dad gets them all beautified.

The Gallo-Roman ruins of a first-century arena (the cathedral in the background dates to the 11th century):


Saintes:


Cathedral in Saintes:


Cognac:

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of Angers. And these aren't all of them, just a few of the horizontal ones (because, yes, I am too lazy to go and flip the other ones around). Although there aren't many of Cognac because, let's face it, I didn't go there for the view.