Bastille Day

I'm about half an hour too late to say that today is Bastille Day, so...

Yesterday was Bastille Day!!!

What is Bastille Day, you may be asking? Well prepare yourself for a history lesson, friends. On 14 July, 1789, the third class of French people stormed the Bastille, a prison in the middle of Paris, putting into motion the French Revolution.
Instead of a genetically-decided monarchy ruling French territories, France would become one of the first countries to experiment with a crazy idea called democracy (still in experimental stages worldwide). The government would be ruled by the people.

Unfortunately, the aristocracy and the clergy would pay for the crimes of the unjust monarchy with their heads, but just on the tails of a crazy little Revolution in the New World, the French Revolution cemented the Western-born idea of democracy. The storming of the Bastille was the precursor to the Republic of France!
Then the monarchy was restored.
Then Napoleon started the first empire.
Then came the 2nd Republic of France!
Then came Napoleon's nephew and the 2nd empire.
Then came the 3rd Republic of France!
Then came Hitler.
Then came the 4th Republic of France!
And then the French president stepped down because he didn't like the Constitution, so they changed it, and voila,
The 5th Republic of France! - and that's what it is today.

My point/history lesson: Though we live in an age of freedom fries, freedom toast, and freedom kisses, France and the U.S. are sisters in democracy, and I for one am grateful for the legacy of freedom that they together have formed for the world.

For that reason, I wish you all a Happy Bastille Day! God Bless America! Vive la France! Vive la liberté!

Moving, making enemies, and other quick updates...

It's been a while since I've had the old blog up and running, so for all of you (I was about to say both of you, but decided I couldn't count myself) who read it, here's the scoop on my life.

I'm no longer living in Waverly!!! Nothing against Waverly, but aside from my parents, there's just not a ton to do there. Having once again left my parents, I'm now living a peaceful life in Fairborn. Well...relatively peaceful. Well...actually, I'm living in a house that has at least one of every weapon that I've ever heard of and a couple that I didn't know existed. But at least the people are nice. As in, they're all very nice. No reason to get excited, machete-weilding roommate, because we're all very nice...and calm. Nice and calm. All friends.

Okay, so aside from the whole slasher film prop aspect of living in Fairborn, life is beginning to take on a shape of normalcy. I'm taking a whole lot of education classes about children, and how to treat them.
What I've learned so far can perhaps be divided into good ideas and bad ideas.

Good Idea: Calling students' parents to foster home involvement.
Bad Idea: Calling students' parents stupid skanks (in front of the students or parents, anyway).

Good Idea: Encouraging children
Bad Idea: Encouraging children to quit school, because some people just aren't cut out for 4th grade.

Good Idea: Making fun activities for students
Bad Idea: Making fun of students

Good Idea: Caring about students' financial difficulties
Bad Idea: Discussing students' financial difficulties in class. (This actually happened to one of my friends in her observation class).

Okay, these are pretty lame, but what can I say, my classes aren't exactly winning any Oscars themselves.

I've also rekindled an old relationship since I've been back. Unfortunately it's one of those relationships where no matter how much gasoline you pour on that bridge, it just doesn't want to burn. My study abroad advisor, whom I had really hoped would maybe find her calling in the bowels of an accounting firm somewhere before I had to deal with her office again, is in almost god-like control of my life. She was sovereignly reigning over my transcripts for a while, and she just passed on her unquestioned authority of my finances to the Financial Aid office. Yes, this woman was literally controlling what I could buy and therefore, what I could eat, drink, and drive. Scary.
Well, as my financial aid was contingent upon her action, I had to send her several emails, then more emails carbon-copied to her bosses, then emails to the headquarters for my study abroad program to request transcripts directly from them, which they in turn forwarded to her. All of this cumulated in her calling me to inform me of my wrongness in emailing everyone, but the greater end was that my financial aid was finally processed yesterday. Oh well, who couldn't use a couple villains in their life?

In other news:
I discovered lime coke - not quite vanilla coke, but nothing to scoff at either.
I broke 2 cars in one week.
I've learned a variety of ways to tell female students what kind of fat they are.
And I'm living in a dining room.

Incoherency is setting in.
Good night.